28
by mintbanana
Summary: She has 28 days, but if he's to be believed, she's losing this one either way. Reds. Completed.
1. Before

_Disclaimer: I do not own.  
__This started off as a short one-shot that was then expanded and then became a monstrosity of a plan which kind of spilled over onto my laptop. Still, it more or less cured my writers' block, so not entirely a bad thing. Reviews are welcome._

**28  
****Before**

"Blossom, you coming?"

"Huh? Oh, give me a minute, I just want to finish up here. It won't take long." Buttercup rolled her eyes as her sister flipped over another page of her notebook and started writing down even more notes.

"Bloss, we are leaving _now_."

"This is _important_ Buttercup, and I want it done as soon as possible." As Buttercup opened her mouth to complain again, Bubbles' voice rang out from downstairs.

"Blossom, Buttercup, we have to go now or we're going to be late. The table was booked for 8; it's already quarter to and you know I can't fly in this dress." Blossom looked up briefly and continued writing, prompting the sister standing in the doorway to turn on her heel and head for the stairs.

"Bloss isn't coming. She _might_ catch up with us, if she gets done with whatever the heck she's doing anytime soon." Bubbles said something indistinct, but Blossom detected a sadness in her voice. Sighing, she decided to sacrifice some of the neatness of her handwriting for speed.

xxx

_Why did they have to choose tonight to go out?_ she thought, rather spitefully, as she straightened her skirt and fixed the collar on her blouse forty five minutes later. She stuck a few more kirby grips into her bun as an afterthought and grabbed her handbag from the bed before stepping into her shoes and heading for the door. Bubbles had announced the night before that she'd made reservations at the new French restaurant that had opened up in the city centre for them all and she wasn't talking no for an answer. Of course, Blossom had attempted to protest, but Bubbles, for once, had put her designer shoe clad foot firmly down and told her to cancel any plans she might have made.

However, that was not about to happen. Blossom's plans could never be cancelled. They were always _important_.

As she locked the front door behind her, her phone started ringing, and she let out a little hiss of frustration as she dug through her handbag. It was Buttercup.

"_Where the _hell_ are you? The table was booked for half an hour ago. Bubbles is getting really upset."_

"I'm on my way now, calm down."

"_Calm down?! You're the one who always screams at us if we're so much as five minutes late for _anything_ you plan out. How can you be so bloody hypocritical?_"

"Buttercup, I will be there in five minutes. There is no need to raise your voice." She hit the end call button as Buttercup started up a string of expletives in a barely restrained volume.

To save time, she decided to fly; it would be worth slightly ruffled hair to stop Buttercup verbally attacking her again. She arrived at the restaurant within ten minutes, and immediately took a dislike to the décor as she entered. The walls were a mixture of powder pink and cream stripes clashing terribly with other walls that were a deep cranberry red. The table cloths were all blindingly white and trimmed with rather badly made lace. A fake rose in a pink monstrosity of a vase was sat on each table next to a menu that appeared to have a rose or some other form of flower pattern edging it. Overall, the effect was extremely tacky and not at all French. She made her way through the maze of tables and oddly placed mahogany screens until she finally caught sight of her sisters and the Professor sitting by a big portrait window that appeared to look out onto a garden. Bubbles caught sight of her first, and waved her over.

"You finally made it!" Blossom smiled weakly and slid into the empty seat opposite her blonde-haired sister.

"Sorry I took so long. There was just some new tactics I had to draw up and I had some ideas I think we should run over while we're all…" She tailed off as she noticed Buttercup shaking her head and Bubbles fidgeting with the edge of the tablecloth.

"Is… something wrong?" The Professor cleared his throat quietly.

"I believe Bubbles brought us here to tell us all something." Blossom blinked while Bubbles nodded awkwardly.

"I'm sorry. Bubbles?"

"Yes, I umm… I have some good news." She took a deep breath and linked her fingers together while grinning widely, and both of her sisters saw the sheer excitement playing over her features. After a short pause, she tucked a stray hair back behind her ear and said;

"Well, you know how there was the city cheerleading tournament last month? There was a scout there for one of the regional teams. She invited me to try out for a professional squad next month in New York!" There was a stunned silence at the table before Buttercup and the Professor launched into a chorus of congratulations and hugs. Blossom on the other hand, started wide-eyed at her sister.

"But, you're not going, are you?" she said abruptly, making Buttercup stop in the middle of practically throttling Bubbles in an extremely enthusiastic bear hug.

"What d'you mean? Of _course_ she's going! This is so much better than cheering for our school's lameass team."

"But, she can't." All three of them were now staring at her, and Blossom felt her throat constrict slightly. The Professor coughed and gestured to a passing waiter.

"I think," he said gently, "that we should talk about this once we've all had something to eat, alright?" The girls mumbled a general consent, and when the waiter came over, they all gave their orders in a monotone. However, when the food came, Bubbles was already reverting to her usual cheery mood, and Buttercup was following suit. Blossom, on the other hand, still felt a rising unease that she somehow knew was _not_ going to go away.

xxx

Surprisingly, the food somehow managed to make up for the interior design of the place, and Blossom was quite happy to eat all of her goat's cheese and tapenade crouton with the walnut and herb salad, and was halfway through her canard a l'orange when the Professor left to use the bathroom and Buttercup casually asked Bubbles when she would be leaving for New York.

"Buttercup, she's not going." Blossom said lightly, causing Bubbles to squeak and choke slightly on her drink.

"Blossom, where are you getting this idea?" Buttercup shot back, sounding irritated.

"She _can't_ go. We need her here. None of my plans will work if there are only two of us, therefore, there is no way she can go to New York. What if something happened?" Her two sisters stared at her slack jawed.

"But Blossom, I really want to go. This is a really big deal for me."

"Bubbles, I appreciate that, but don't you think it's a _little_ selfish of you to put yourself before the city?" At that, Buttercup stood up abruptly, slamming her hands down onto the table and rattling the dishes and cutlery.

"Selfish? You're calling _Bubbles_ selfish? What about you? You're the one who wouldn't quit writing down your precious_ plans_ for one night even when she told you that this was important. Then you swan in here almost forty minutes late and you're telling her she can't go?"

"Buttercup, you are causing a scene." Blossom hissed, conscious that people were ceasing their conversations to watch the local celebrities having what was shaping up to be quite an argument.

"Damn right I'm causing a scene because it's the only freaking way I'll ever get you to listen! Bubbles wants this really badly. She's going. End of story. You can take your stupid plans and shove them up alongside that huge stick you've got in your ass." She retook her seat and started eating again, keeping her eyes on her plate. Blossom sat in stunned silence.

"I… How dare you talk to me like that?!" she spluttered eventually. Buttercup didn't so much as look up, she simply swallowed her current mouthful and speared a piece of chicken with her fork, ignoring her sister completely.

That was it. Blossom's head started pounding and now it felt as though her sisters were deliberately attempting to destroy her perfectly ordered world. It was a direct challenge to her leadership, and not something that she was accustomed to.

"I can't believe you would do this to me," she hissed, her eyes pricking slightly as tears welled up at the corners. With Bubbles staring silently at her plate and Buttercup pointedly ignoring her, Blossom, pushed her chair back and rose quick enough to see stars as the blood rushed to her head. Without pausing, she spun on her heel and ran for the door, almost crashing into the Professor on his way back to the table.

"Blossom, what-" She didn't allow him to finish, instead brushing him aside and weaving between the tables between her and the exit. She almost broke the glass panelling of the door as she wrenched it open and fled outside.

xxx

"Stupid, stupid, _stupid_," she spat, stalking along the street and wishing she had thought to pick up her jacket and bag before making her abrupt exit. In fact, she wished she had never even gone to the restaurant in the first place. She had skipped a lot of work to do so. Suddenly, the heel of one shoe snagged on an uneven paving stone and she stumbled, before angrily kicking both of the impractical shoes off her feet, scooping them up and carrying on, wishing that just one thing tonight would go right.

"Someone's happy this evening."

_Just _one_ thing; is that so much to ask?_

"Leave me alone. I don't have the energy to deal with you right now." She kept on walking, and was less than impressed when he brought his lazy stride level with hers.

"Brick, I'm serious. Just go away."

"And miss out on a chance to see the Ice Queen all hot and bothered? Hardly." Blossom stopped dead.

"Leave. Me. Alone." He stopped short and put his hands up as she snarled at him, the casual smirk never leaving his face.

"Easy, Red, easy. I didn't show up to cause trouble. Well, not _just_ to cause trouble anyway." Blossom's response was to growl menacingly under her breath and keep walking, becoming increasingly irritated when she realised that he was still following her.

"Look, what do you _want_?" she snapped eventually, whirling on him. He kept on walking for a few steps until he was ahead of her before putting his hands in his pockets and facing her.

"Nothing too disastrous. You've got something I want, and I've heard good girls like you think it's nice to share."

"I have nothing of yours. Why would I want anything belonging to you?" He rolled his eyes.

"I didn't say you had something of _mine_. I said you have something I _want_. There's a difference." She glared at him suspiciously.

"Well then, enlighten me."

"You."

"Excuse me?" He leaned forward and tapped her on the forehead, making her flinch backwards and swat at his hand.

"You heard me Red. I want you. I figure you'd be good for me."

She barely registered the action, but the next thing she knew, Brick was flat on his back around ten feet away with a very vivid red hand print on his cheek.

"You sleaze! I am not some… cheap harlot you can just pick up off the street. How could you possibly think I would ever… Ugh!" Brick picked himself up and dusted himself off.

"Anyone would think you didn't like me or something Bloss. Owwie; that was one hell of a slap. Anyway, I think you've misunderstood my intentions."

"And what, exactly, could I possibly be misunderstanding? You are a villain, a bad guy, in simpler terms; some might even call you my archrival. What possible motivation could you have other than some scheme to get rid of me somehow?" He shrugged and straightened his hat.

"I watched you long enough. Something clicked. Now I wanna see what happens next."

"There is no 'next'. There was no 'click'. This conversation is just ridiculous. I'm going home." She stormed past him, wrapping her arms round herself defensively. This time, he didn't come after her.

"It's January the 31st," he called out after a short pause. She stopped and looked back over her shoulder.

"So? You know the date. You must be so proud."

"Ha _ha_. But my point is, February starts tomorrow. That means you have twenty-eight days." She turned back fully this time.

"Is that a threat?" she asked carefully. He shrugged.

"Call it a wager. I won't be holding much back Bloss. You have twenty-eight days. I'm betting I can win you over before February the 28th."

"That is too idiotic for words."

"You won't say no."

"Of course I-"

"You can never resist beating me at anything Bloss. You'll take the bet, and I'm telling you, you'll lose." She stared long and hard at the stupid, smug smirk gracing his features and felt her own expression harden.

"Fine, I'll take your stupid bet, just to prove that I really am too smart for your stupid tricks."

"Blossom, Blossom, Blossom. You're missing the point sweetheart. No matter what the outcome, you lose either way." And then he was gone, streaking away between the buildings. Blossom stared after him before shaking her head angrily and continuing on towards her home. Brick was an idiot, plain and simple. She had no need to worry about this little 'wager' of his; it was obviously just another transparent scheme.

She tried to shove the thought of it from her mind, but the words were still there. When he'd said that he liked her, in his typically chauvinistic way (or at least, that's what she was telling herself it was), he'd seemed fairly genuine. As genuine as Brick could be anyway.

_There's no use thinking about this. Just go home, go to bed, get plenty of sleep and go to school as normal. Everything is fine._

Or so she hoped anyway.


	2. The 1st

_Thanks for the nice reviews everyone; I hope you continue to enjoy the story!_

**1**

Blossom's alarm, as always, went off at 6:30 and she was quick to roll neatly out of bed and hit the off button. Smoothing the creases out of her pink silk pyjamas, she slipped out of her room and padded down the hall to the bathroom, pausing to grab a fresh towel from the linen cupboard. As she did, she heard a soft noise from behind her and turned to find Bubbles looking out from behind her half open bedroom door. Upon meeting her sister's gaze, the blonde gave a tiny squeak and banged the door shut again, making Blossom frown. Surely she couldn't still be upset? Resolving to review the situation over breakfast, she stepped into the bathroom and turned the shower on, cranking the temperature up to near maximum.

She heard Buttercup emerge from her room as she finished brushing her hair in front of her bedroom mirror, pulling it up into its customary ponytail with the usual red ribbon. Shaking it out to make sure none of it was caught in the collar of her blouse, she rose and slipped on her mary-janes before grabbing her book bag and leaving for the kitchen. Bubbles was already sitting munching on a piece of toast and frowning over several sheets of what appeared to be Biology homework. Blossom glanced over her shoulder as she poured out a bowl of cereal.

"Phospholipids," she said lightly. "Cell membranes are made of up protein and phospholipid molecules." Bubbles murmured a quiet thank you around a mouthful of her toast and scribbled it down, but she didn't really acknowledge her sister other than that.

Buttercup came crashing into the kitchen in her usual half-asleep state two minutes later, stumbling over to the coffee maker and pouring herself a cup from the fresh pot Blossom had put on. She spooned in two helpings of sugar and gulped it down, making a face as it burned her tongue.

"Where's the Professor?" she asked Bubbles, wiping her mouth on her sleeve and putting her mug in the sink. Bubbles looked up from her homework and used her pen to point out of the door to the basement stairs.

"He's in the lab. I think he has a new project or something." Buttercup grunted and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl.

"I'm heading off; I said I'd meet the guys for some early practice."

"Don't you think you should eat something?" Blossom asked. "Going to school without breakfast affects your concentration in class. Your grades will never get better if you don't start focusing."

"Ugh, whatever," Buttercup muttered, giving Blossom a look of bored contempt. "Who'd wanna be a nerd like you anyway?" She disappeared, and moments later, the remaining two heard the door slam shut.

"What is the _matter_ with her?" Blossom said incredulously. She took a sip of her jasmine tea and a deep breath, looking at her other sister for an answer. Bubbles finished her toast and wiped crumbs off the sheets on the table.

"She's still angry about last night."

"But surely she must see the sense in it. I know it's what's right. You see that too, don't you Bubbles?" The blonde shook her head slightly.

"I don't know anymore Blossom. Sometimes I think you only see what's right for _you_, not for either of us." And she gathered up her papers and left the kitchen. Blossom sat nonplussed at the table, still clutching her teacup.

All she wanted was what was best and that meant seeing the city protected. It was about doing things for the greater good; sometimes that meant making sacrifices, which, while not pleasant, had to be made. She finished the last mouthful of tea and left for the downstairs bathroom to brush her teeth, with Bubbles brushing past her at the door. As she entered the bathroom, she heard the front door close, and felt a small pang as she realised that she would be walking to school on her own.

xxx

Nothing seemed amiss at school. Blossom got through history, English and maths without incident, although neither of her sisters were in those classes. Naturally, she ignored the possible correlation, instead concentrating solely on taking notes and passing the pop quiz the maths teacher sprang on them.

She shared her fourth class with Bubbles, who nodded to her briefly and took a seat on the far side of the classroom instead of the one next to her sister. This seemed terribly childish to Blossom, but she forced on a bright little smile as Robin slid into the chair in her place.

"Hi Blossom, sorry to ask this straight off and all but did you finish that homework? I tried, but that last question _killed_ me. Can I see your answer?"

"You know I don't like cheating Robin."

"It's not cheating! Really, I _promise_ I won't look at the answer then; I just need to see your calculation." Blossom sighed and motioned for Robin to pass the homework. They still had a few minutes before the teacher turned up, and she quickly gave the basic outline of Hess's law and helped Robin slot the figures into the right places before the lab door opened.

"Thanks Bloss, I owe you big time for this," Robin whispered gratefully, scribbling down the last parts of the calculation. Blossom cast her eyes over to where Bubbles sat shuffling pieces of paper in her folder and carefully keeping her eyes fixed on them. For the first time, Blossom felt genuinely worried; Buttercup was fully capable of holding a grudge for weeks at a time, but Bubbles rarely even lost her temper, nevermind stopped talking to anyone for longer than perhaps ten minutes.

xxx

It was only when she was heading for lunch that she remembered her encounter with Brick the night before. His words had been… well, she couldn't exactly say they were threatening; it wasn't as though he had given her an ultimatum. It was just a silly bet that he had no chance of winning, that was all. Besides, what possible method could he use to win her over? She knew him too well. Or rather, she knew enough about him to know that she really was not interested, or likely to be interested. Ever.

She then realised that she was devoting entirely too much thought to the whole thing, and promptly resolved to try and forget about it.

The lunch hall was, as usual, packed, and it took Blossom several 'excuse me's and carefully applied use of her elbows to get hold of a tray and join the queue. Normally, she would have brought her own lunch, but due to Brick's interference (which she was _not_ thinking about), she had been too distracted to make one up last night. So, unhealthy school food it was, however unhappy she felt about the prospect.

When she'd fought her way through the scrum of a queue and got herself her lunch, she wandered over to the usual table that she shared with her sisters and a few other girls. Buttercup looked up from her sandwich as she sat down, and then averted her eyes again. Bubbles simply continued nibbling a piece of lettuce from one of the limp school salads, and cast a worried look at their black haired sister.

"So," Blossom said amicably, "how have your lessons been?" Buttercup rolled her eyes and polished off the last bite of her sandwich.  
"Why? So you can show off about how you aced that pop quiz you got? I already heard from Morgan."

"There's no need for that Buttercup."

"There was no need for you to be so bloody minded last night either."

"Look, I already explained why I think Bubbles should stay here. I mean, it's for the good of-"

"No, it's so you can look good bossing us around and taking all the credit. Now if you don't mind, I have better things to do with my time; I'll be with the team."

Bubbles picked up a carrot stick as Buttercup strode off to a nearby table to talk to some of the guys from the basketball team. Blossom's mouth was still poised mid sentence.

"Alright, she has _got_ to do something about that attitude," she muttered finally. There was a crunch from the carrot stick.

"Maybe she's not that one who should be thinking about changing her attitude," Bubbles said pointedly. The nagging sense of worry came back to Blossom. It seemed her sisters had painted her firmly in the wrong this time, and she had no idea how to cope, especially since even Bubbles was being snarky about it.

"E-excuse me," she said hurriedly, her strange habit of being overly formal when nervous popping up. She pushed out her chair with a squeak, leaving her sandwich uneaten and walked quickly across the room. From the corner of her eye, she caught Buttercup looking over at her, and sped up.

xxx

For the first time in her life, Blossom found that the thought of classes did nothing to make her feel better. Her concentration was shot. As she walked slowly down the corridor towards the library, she looked up and saw her violin case sitting on top of the lockers. Pausing, she looked down the corridor at the double doors of the library, and then back at the instrument case. It only took a few seconds more before she grabbed hold of it and changed course for the music rooms.

Since it was still lunchtime, it was easy enough for her to find an empty practice room, and she quickly selected the one furthest back in the music block. It was one of the larger rooms, and had big windows along the back wall, making it seem much bigger again. Blossom set down the case and pulled out her violin, plucking the strings and playing with the pegs to make sure it was in tune. Putting a little rosin on her bow strings, she pulled out a few sheets of music and rifled through them. She finally settled on Prokofiev's Sonata op. 115 and settled the instrument securely in the crook of her neck. Taking a second to focus herself, she laid the bow over the strings and tested the sound. And then she launched herself into the piece.

She had been playing the violin since she was six years old, and had impressed many with her raw talent and aptitude for learning. Her near-zealous love for order and routine had seen her throw at least two hours per day into practicing the instrument, but although her teacher had urged her to participate in competitions, she had refused over and over again. She had a duty to the city; she couldn't be off playing an instrument for her own whimsical enjoyment. Or anyone else's for that matter.

It was only when the bell rang for the end of school that she realised exactly how long she'd been playing. She'd gone from Prokofiev to Bach to Bartók and played a few short pieces from memory on top of those. Feeling satisfied, and substantially calmer now, she placed the violin and bow back into the case and packed away the music. She turned to leave, only to stop short.

There, taped to the door, was a single long-stemmed red rose with a note tied to the stem with a thin red ribbon. Suddenly feeling slightly nervous, she approached the flower cautiosly, almost as though the thing would explode. She set down the violin case and reached for it, pulling it off of the door. Noting that the thorns had all been removed, she untied the ribbon and looked at the note. It was blank except for a large '_B_' scrawled in a messy cursive in the bottom right hand corner. She stared at it, then crumpled it angrily before tossing it and the rose in the bin by the far wall. Without moving from where she stood.

_How on earth did he get in here without me noticing?_ she seethed, storming down the corridor to her locker, scattering the small drifts of people still milling about before heading home. Surely she couldn't have been that distracted. She had superhuman senses; there should have been no way he could have got in without her seeing him. The hinges on that door squeaked like a roomful of mice on helium for one thing. Then again, Brick had the same senses that she had. It was possible that he had used his own to counterract hers.

_Well some new tricks and a rose aren't going to convince me of anything. You'll have to do better than that._

She blinked as she had that thought.

_No, nothing he can do will ever change my mind. Never._

That was more like it. More like her. She shoved a few folders into her bag and shouldered it triumphantly. All his effort had done was make her even more sure that his plan was going to fail. Besides, if that was the best he could do then he had even less than no chance. However, there was still the problem with her sisters to solve.

She left the school with a grim smile on her face. If there was three things Blossom was good at, they were fighting crime, playing the violin and solving problems, the trickier the better.


	3. The 2nd

_Sorry for the wait everyone; RL got kinda crazy on me and my muse went AWOL. But we're back with a vengeance! Please enjoy._

**2**

Bubbles and Buttercup clashed over the bathroom the next morning and Blossom heard the scuffle and then a loud bang, all followed by several loud thumps and much cursing from Buttercup. She smirked quietly to herself; no one ever beat Bubbles to the bathroom.

Buttercup was still largely silent over breakfast, which she actually deigned to have when Bubbles declared that she was making pancakes. The three of them managed to eat the ever-so-slightly over-large stack of them in a more or less civil way, with Bubbles occasionally firing off questions about the homework she was stuck on this morning. However, Blossom still felt that she was being frozen out, and to remedy this, cleared her throat loudly.

"So, did you remember that we're meeting with the Mayor tomorrow night? There's a few issues regarding security for the opening of the new memorial fountain next week and-" she noticed Buttercup rolling her eyes. "Problem?"

"What's the issue? If something happens, we'll deal with it."

"It is _always_ better to be prepared." Buttercup shot her a dirty look, but somehow managed to bite back the acidic remark that Blossom just _knew_ was dying to be said.

"I'm going. Bubbles, you got practice tonight?" Bubbles nodded.

"And it's Blossom's turn to make dinner."

"Great." Blossom stood up.

"You two are _purposely_ avoiding the issue here. Why can you not take this seriously?" Buttercup got to her feet and walked away, looking back as she reached the door.

"Maybe you should take _us_ a bit more seriously first."

xxx

As Blossom locked the front door behind her (the Professor was still working away in his lab and unlikely to hear a bomb going off in the house, nevermind a burglary), she heard a small noise behind her, and turned to see Bubbles waiting for her. Happy that one of her sisters now appeared to be seeing sense, she smiled and walked over to join her.

"Shall we go? I take it Buttercup's already on her way." The blonde nodded and fell into step next to her, remaining silent while Blossom started her usual chatter of tactics and planning and protecting the city. It was only when they were halfway to school that Blossom noticed that Bubbles hadn't said _anything_; an extremely unusual occurrence.

"Is there something wrong Bubbles? You're very quiet."

"It's nothing. I was just thinking that maybe you think about this stuff too much, like Buttercup said." Blossom frowned, but before she could speak, Bubbles linked her fingers together and continued.

"I mean, it's good that you care about the city so much and everything, but sometimes it's like you've forgotten how to be a teenager, you know? I mean, the only thing you do other than schoolwork and stuff is play the violin, and you're not in the orchestra or anything so it's like you never just… switch off and have fun."

"Bubbles…"

"I think if you did something like that then… then you would understand us a lot better." Blossom was about to reply, but stopped herself. Bubbles never said anything she didn't mean, and Blossom felt a little of the old connection she had shared with her sister rekindling as she listened. Maybe Bubbles was on to something here, but she didn't know what it was yet.

"Maybe…" she said thoughtfully.

xxx

Despite the fact that she had decided that she was not going to let it bother her, Blossom still kept a wary eye on her surroundings, even though Brick only ever showed up at school if he was _really_ bored. She made it through the day without any sign of him, but then managed to make everyone in the hallway jump as she slammed her locker closed with slightly more force than necessary ten seconds after opening it. Two more roses had been taped to the inside, and she gritted her teeth as she opened the locker again and grabbed a couple of notebooks, also ripping the flowers mercilessly out of it and stuffing them unceremoniously into her bag to be dealt with later.

She shot a borderline murderous glance at the pair of girls who she could tell had seen the roses and were just _dying_ to a) ask questions and b) tell _everyone_ they knew about it _right now_. But Blossom was above gossip; being a superhero pretty much put you at celebrity status, so you learned to live with it, rumours and all. Sweeping down the corridor with her ponytail swinging (only slightly exaggerated on purpose), she had a sudden thought, and instead of carrying on straight towards the main doors, she veered to the left and headed out towards the sports department. Bubbles had said that she had cheerleading practice today, and after their conversation that morning, Blossom had done some thinking.

When she reached the doors to the gym hall, she reached out to open them, but hesitated and ended up peering through the small panes of glass set into the wood. The team appeared to be in the middle of what looked to be a fairly complex routine, and Blossom found herself impressed by the precision and intricacy of it all. Bubbles especially. It was probably the superpowers, but she was head and shoulders above most other members of the team, not to mention a lot more focused. No wonder she had been selected to try out for a professional squad; she was _good_.

She was still watching them work through routines when she heard the familiar pounding of feet that were going way too fast to be a normal human running. Sure enough, Buttercup came racing around the corner and towards the gym, all trace of animosity gone as she called out to her redheaded sister.

"Glad I found you. Monster attack downtown and it's a big one. Grab Bubbles and let's get going."

xxx

As Buttercup had said, it _was_ a big one. Bigger than they'd seen in a while. It was also ugly, but that was pretty much part of the whole monster deal. Same with the havoc-wreaking, and boy, was it _wreaking_.

"We have to stop it _now_. It'll destroy half the city at this rate. I'll take point. Bubbles, you work on getting the civilians to safety, Buttercup, take the right flank; try to distract it while I figure out any weaknesses we can exploit."

It was a perfect plan. Of course it was a perfect plan; Blossom had thought it up. However, while Bubbles immediately swooped off to do her job, Buttercup didn't move, instead eyeing the thing up critically.

"This thing's all offence; nothing to defend itself with other than attacking."

"Buttercup, stick to the plan."

"We don't need your fancy plan! Watch this!"

"Buttercup no!" But it was too late; Buttercup was already gone in a green blur speeding straight for the thing. Blossom attempted to follow, but the creature lashed out with one of its various appendages (again, standard monster malarkey) and took out several upper floors of a skyscraper, bending a major support beam out to a ninety degree angle to the rest of the building. Blossom managed to make it over and hold it up just in time to save it from collapsing, but it was insanely heavy and she already knew that the strain was too much even for someone of her ability.

Stuck struggling with the incredible mass of concrete, steel and glass that was still attempting to freefall all the way to the streets below, Blossom desperately tried to call for her sisters, but Bubbles was hundreds of feet below ushering civilians out of the vicinity, even though, as used to this sort of thing as they were, they were all seemingly quite content to gawp mindlessly at the current debacle. Buttercup, meanwhile, was launching herself relentlessly at the thing, a flash of green light stabbing repeatedly at its hide. Eventually, her attacks became less and less frequent, and she retreated to a short distance away.

"Buttercup!" Blossom yelled, her voice straining just as much as the rest of her. "I need… No, Buttercup, don't!"

There was a sickening crack as Buttercup's hands flared with a blinding light and connected solidly with the thing's head. It roared deafeningly, swaying backwards and allowing her to swing in underneath its elongated snout and deliver a devastating double booted kick to its throat. With an almost pathetic choking noise, it toppled over, and Blossom watched with horror (or as close to it as is possible to achieve with a chunk of building attempting to reintroduce you to the laws of gravity) as it looked set to crush the residential area below. But then, somehow, Bubbles was there, catching it and launching it back up towards Buttercup, who gripped one scaly… arm (?) and hurled it skywards, where it sailed off to somewhere outside of the city limits.

"Blossom! Are you okay?"

"Do I look okay?!" Blossom gasped. "Help me!" They duly did so, helping her heft the building back up and bending the support beam back so that it would hold up temporarily. Long enough for the construction crews to come and fix it up anyway.

Of course, the usual media circus had shown up by the time the three descended to the street below, and they greeted it with the same forced smiles (except Buttercup, who was better known for the trademark scowl) that they did every time.

"What on earth were you doing?" Blossom hissed angrily from the corner of her mouth at Buttercup, who was staring nonchalantly at the cameras while Bubbles did all the talking.

"I saw an opportunity. I went for it. The monster bit the dust. What's the problem?"

"You could have been injured. I had a plan, you should have stuck to it."

"But my plan worked too."

"You didn't _have_ a plan." Buttercup shrugged a shoulder.

"And nothing worse than normal happened. Go figure."

Blossom bit back the lecture on responsibility that was fighting to make itself heard. Buttercup, as much as she really hated to admit it, did have something of a point. But the fact was that Blossom had lost control of the situation, and Blossom _could not_ lose control of a situation. She had to be in control, it was how this all _worked_.

And yet here was Buttercup wrenching that control clean out of her hands and hurling it out of town along with the monster. At that moment, Bubbles wrapped up her little spiel for the cameras and looked back at her sisters expectantly, prompting Buttercup to shove her hands in her pockets and stalk off, muttering about missing practice. Blossom watched her go, feeling the little ache that was becoming far too familiar. How on earth did life get so complicated all of a sudden?


	4. The 3rd

_Again, my muse is rebelling, but I finally got this tapped out. I have plans for the next few chapters; they will be along ASAP, I promise. Until then, please enjoy :)_

**3**

Buttercup appeared to have returned to civil speaking terms, although Blossom was sincerely wishing that she was saying more helpful things, rather then just complaining.

"_Why_ do we have to go to the Mayor's office on a Friday night? The stupid opening isn't 'til next week anyway." Bubbles, curled neatly at one end of the sofa, flipped a page of her magazine and scanned it briefly before answering.

"It was Miss Bellum's idea. She said she wanted out help to work out security before they finish all the planning."

"Like I already told you yesterday morning," Blossom chimed in, managing to keep the annoyance in her voice to a bare minimum. There was no need to set Buttercup off again afterall.

"Urgh, but why do we have to go _there_? Miss Bellum knows where we live and it's not as if the Mayor's going to be planning anything anyway."

"Buttercup, we have been invited, and we are going."

"Funny, you didn't seem to take that attitude on Wednesday night…"

"_What was that?"_

It was only when Bubbles looked up sharply and there was the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs from the basement that Blossom realised just how close she had been to _losing her temper_. There was another thing that just didn't happen. She glanced at Buttercup, wondering how she was suddenly so able to push her buttons. She concluded that it was this nonsense with Brick, which was going to go away soon enough.

With that thought in mind, she managed to greet the Professor with a largely convincing smile as he emerged, presumably hunting for coffee (big projects turned him into a caffeine fiend). She also noted that he looked extremely bedraggled, but that was nothing new either.

"How's the big experiment going?" Buttercup asked, picking up the magazine that Bubbles had just discarded as she left for the kitchen and flipping idly through it. The Professor ran a hand through his already very ruffled hair, headed into the kitchen after Bubbles and flicked the kettle on.

"Almost there. I think. I'm not actually sure; the whole thing is rather volatile at the moment. Until it stabilises I won't know if it's complete or not."

"What is it this time Professor?" Bubbles asked, bringing a mug over to him from the cupboard and spooning some coffee granules into it.

"I… don't really know yet. I observed some interesting reactions between Chemical X and…" Blossom found herself tuning out as she caught sight of the clock. It was almost seven already; they only had ten minutes until they were due to be at the Mayor's office.

"Girls, grab your jackets, we have to go. Sorry Professor; important meeting, you know how it is."

"Of course. I'll see you later. Maybe."

xxx

"I hate it being dark this early. I want it to be spring already!" Blossom sighed. Bubbles often complained about the lack of sunshine during the winter. Actually, she generally complained about the lack of sunshine whenever it rained during the summer too. Blossom on the other hand, quite liked the rain. It was relaxing to listen to when she was at the library or curled up on her bedroom window seat with a good book or some homework. The lack of light on winter evenings did little to faze her either; it wasn't as though she couldn't see in the dark if she wanted to.

They arrived at the Mayor's office bang on seven, and Miss Bellum was already waiting for them with a clipboard and a pen.

"Now girls, we've made the majority of the arrangements; all we need you to do is look them over and make any necessary adjustments regarding security. Of course, we don't anticipate anything going wrong, but…"

"Of course Miss Bellum. This will only take a few minutes." Blossom took the clipboard and pen from her and started poring over the various sheets of paper detailing the order of proceedings for the fountain opening ceremony. She made a couple of notes in the margins, passed the sheets to Bubbles and Buttercup, waited for their nods of approval and took them back. She then shuffled them back into order and handed them to Miss Bellum, at which point the front of the bank across the street exploded.

xxx

"Alright boys! Let's make this fast, before… ah, scratch that." Brick laughed as Blossom came striding over the wreckage towards him, her eyes glowing (both literally and metaphorically in this case) with a fury more intense than he thought her capable of.

"Evening Bloss. You're looking… well, I suppose angry is really all I'm getting here." He waved back to his brothers, both of whom nodded and split off towards the two other girls who had appeared behind their sister, Butch laughing wildly all the while. Blossom heard him snarl something at Buttercup and saw Bubbles take off with Boomer in hot pursuit. That left her alone with the Red-Capped Annoyance. Wonderful.

"I was having a perfectly good evening," she said, almost in an even tone of voice. "And then some _idiot_ has to come along and ruin it all."

"Aww, come on Bloss. Don't act like you haven't missed me. You got my presents, didn't you?" She fought an overwhelming urge to grind her teeth.

"You still don't think you have any chance of succeeding with this ridiculous plan, do you?"

"Well, I've yet to fail when I've got my heart set on something." He smirked at her, the familiar arrogant glint in his eyes, making her temper flare. She tried to keep it under control; the last thing she needed here was to lose her cool. Unfortunately, Brick did not seem to be of the same opinion.

She wasn't exactly surprised when he suddenly launched himself at her, but what she didn't expect was to have her hair suddenly tumble down around her face as he grabbed her hair ribbon and tugged it out. He paused for a second, dangling it in front of her face, before speeding off over the top of the Mayor's office building. Blossom, naturally, shot after him, chasing him over the business district to the far end of the city. He finally came to a stop over the new nature reserve (Bubbles' idea, of course) on the eastern outskirts, still dangling her ribbon in one hand. She glared at him fiercely, her hair blowing about in front of her face. She swept it aside roughly, which seemed to amuse him.

"What's the matter? You really suit it more when it's down you know. Gives you that wild look; _very_ attractive by the way." She bristled.

"I am not here simply for your enjoyment you idiotic chauvinist."

"Hey, that hurts my feelings." He grinned. "Yes, I do know what chauvinism is, please try to contain your shock."

"Brick, what do you want from me? I am not going to play this game anymore."

"I told you what I want Bloss, nothing more, nothing less. The fact that you're playing hard to get just makes it that much more fun."

"I am not your toy."

"I never said you were, although I wouldn't mind… _playing_ with you, if you know what I mean…" That was the last straw.

Brick yelped as Blossom flew at him and savagely buried an elbow into his stomach, folding him quite neatly in the middle and dropping him several feet out of the air. He hovered, wheezing in pain, his arms wrapped around his midsection and was caught unprepared when Blossom drove her hands down in a double handed chop at the back of his neck. He went down like a stone, hitting the ground with enough force to break human bones. However, being superhuman as he was, all it would do was bruise him.

She landed next to him and delicately bent over to retrieve her ribbon from where it was still clutched in his hand. Keeping one pink eye firmly fixed on him, she held it between her lips and smoothed her hair back from her face and back to its customary ponytail, tying it off with the ribbon, as it should have stayed in the first place. Brick levered himself into a vaguely upright position as she finished, coughing slightly.

"Wow, never figured I'd ever get sucker-punched by you. Always seemed more like Buttercup's thing." Blossom's response was to turn on her heel and walk away. She was done dignifying him with her responses; all it did was encourage him.

"The silent treatment, huh?" She heard him get to his feet. "Oh, but don't forget these." She half turned and, thanks to her fast reactions, was just quick enough to catch the three, rather crumpled, roses that he tossed to her.

"Figured I'd hand deliver them this time. I'm a gentleman like that."

"A gentleman? Don't make me laugh." She dropped them at her feet and kept walking. "A gentleman would respect a lady's decision to decline his advances."

"And a lady wouldn't refuse a gift." She paused and looked back at him. His eyes had taken on a strange look. It wasn't anything she recognised, although the shadow of that familiar arrogance was definitely there. Fighting a sudden urge to shiver, she faced him once more. He looked unsettling in the dark, even with her ability to see him perfectly well.

"This has to stop Brick. I never agreed to your stupid game, now leave me alone, and don't let me catch you making any more trouble or I _will_ make sure you'll never cause any more in this city, do you understand me?"

"I understand Bloss, I understand." He turned around and pushed off the ground, hovering for a second.

"But don't think for one minute that I'm going to listen." And then he was streaking away over the rooftops, out of sight in seconds. Blossom stared after him, her mouth slack. Then it clamped shut as she fought a desperate urge to scream. The roses she had dropped and abandoned suddenly found themselves being stamped on again and again as she found herself wishing sincerely that they were that stupid, pigheaded, sexist _idiot_'s face.

xxx

When she finally made her way back to the bank, Bubbles was already waiting, looking less than ruffled by her encounter with Boomer. Buttercup, on the other hand, was still slugging it out with Butch above them, which came as little surprise to anyone.

"Blossom? What happened? Your face is all red; were you crying?"

"Huh? No, I just… exertion, you know." It was true, in a sense; she had got extremely worked up over those roses.

"I see. Well, Boomer and Brick have both gone, so should we go help Buttercup or…?"

"No, it's alright. I doubt she'd thank us for it anyway. Just leave them to it and they'll tire themselves out eventually." Bubbles stared at her.

"Are you sure? Normally you-"

"Bubbles, please. I'm tired. Can we just go home?" Her sister nodded silently, but Blossom noticed the flicker of worry crossing her features. In truth, she did feel tired, and as much as part of her really did want to go and get Buttercup back on the ground again before she destroyed something, she mostly felt that she just really needed to go home and collapse into bed before anything else could go wrong. Besides, it was late.


	5. The 4th

_A quick update for once. Inspiration comes from the strangest places._

**4**

For the first time in her life, Blossom slept in. On a Saturday morning. _Voluntarily_.

It wasn't just the fact that it was nearing eleven when she wandered into the kitchen still clad in her dressing gown that made Bubbles' eyes widen, it was the combination of that and the fact that her long red hair, though newly washed, blow dried and straightened, was hanging down over her shoulders without a ribbon, hair tie or clip in sight.

"Morning," Blossom said amiably, reaching into the cupboard and pulling out her cereal. Bubbles returned the greeting, looking at her sister warily over her morning cup of chamomile tea.

"Where's Buttercup? Still in bed?"

"No, she's at practice. The team have a game this afternoon."

"Oh, really?" She sat down opposite her sister with her bowl and reached for the milk.

"What about you? Got any plans?" Bubbles nodded.

"I'm going to the game; we've got a new routine."

"I see. Hey, when does it start?"

"Huh? Oh, at one." Blossom nodded and took a spoonful, chewing thoughtfully. Bubbles threw another confused glance at her before finishing her tea, putting her cup in the sink and heading upstairs to get herself ready for going out. Blossom continued eating, wondering what exactly was suitable for wearing to a high school basketball game.

xxx

It occurred to Blossom as she was walking to the school that her head felt much clearer than it had over the last few days. Thinking about it more, she realised that, although she had been bone tired after the fight last night, she hadn't felt as emotionally drained. As much as she hated to admit it, losing her temper over a certain testosterone-ridden moron seemed to have done her some good. She shoved that thought away quickly; if she started entertaining ideas like that then she might actually develop some respect for him.

She reached the school a little ahead of schedule for the beginning of the match, but as it turned out, she wasn't the only one. In fact, she was rather surprised by the sheer amount of people that had turned up, especially considering the heavy drizzle that had begun to fall. She pushed her way into the gymnasium and finally onto a seat through a crowd of parents, siblings, friends and several teachers, all talking very loudly and many displaying little banners and pennants with the school team logo. The cheerleading squad came through the gym doors after a few minutes, with Bubbles leading them, looking as comfortable and fashion-conscious in the red and blue Townsville Titans cheer uniform as she did in any of her various designer outfits. They took up position on the right hand side of the court, with their backs to the Blossom, just as the opposing squad made their entrance. Blossom saw Bubbles turn to her team and start gesturing and talking excitedly. She instantly recognised Bubbles' usual excitement, but there was something else in her manner, something new that Blossom hadn't seen before, but it was something she recognised all the same. Bubbles, for all of her cheerful enthusiasm, was undeniably the leader of that team, and from the positive way that the other girls were responding, she was damn good at it.

As Blossom sat turning this new revelation over in her mind, the speakers in the hall squealed and gave a burst of static before churning out a blast of some generic dance number. The other team was obviously unprepared for this, scrambling to get themselves into their starting positions, but Bubbles had her team ready and moving within seconds. They launched into their routine with all the ease of breathing and Blossom found herself watching them intently, admiring the precision with which they executed each movement in the sequence. She wondered if Bubbles had come up with all of this choreography herself, but this thought was interrupted by the shrill noise of a whistle and the gym doors burst open once again as the two basketball teams came barrelling through.

Blossom picked out Buttercup easily, her black hair tied back into a short ponytail at the base of her neck and her green eyes flashing with excitement. Officially, the team was co-ed, but Buttercup was the only girl brave enough to break into the all-boys club, mainly due to her stubborn refusal to give into stereotypes and her near-fanatical love of sports. Of course, none of the boys were about to complain; apart from the fact that their number of wins had shot up dramatically after Buttercup had joined the team, they were all in equal parts terrified and fascinated. Of course, she never noticed, nor took any interest in anything other than a purely team-mate relationship with any of them, but that was just Buttercup, and they'd all come to accept that.

When the game started, Blossom realised that she wasn't exactly familiar with the rules, but soon enough, she was caught up in the action. After a few minutes, she realised that she didn't _have_ to know the rules inside out to enjoy it. With Buttercup racing up and the down the court and Bubbles leading the cheers, Blossom felt herself getting caught up in the excitement of it. It was apparent that, however often Buttercup might complain about how 'lame' the team was, she was truly passionate about it, and she would do whatever it took to see them to victory. However, 30 seconds before halftime, Buttercup caught a pass and headed for the net, getting blocked on her way. She threw herself to the side, skirting round the opposing player with ease and keeping the ball in perfect rhythm, never missing a beat, but just before she finished the turn and tried for the basket, she locked eyes with Blossom and froze. The ball was snatched from her easily, and just as the buzzer went, the other team scored. Bubbles snapped her head around to where Buttercup was staring, her own eyes widening as she caught sight of their red headed sister.

xxx

"What are you doing here? You _never_ come to see the games." There was nothing but confusion in Buttercup's voice, which was a welcome change really, but still, Blossom was unable to give her an answer. Bubbles too looked confused, but she seemed mostly pleased.

"It's good to see you out of the house at least. I thought you'd be doing homework cos it's raining." Blossom automatically flashed back to the (small) pile of homework that was waiting for her at home, but dragged herself back to the present.

Buttercup, having recovered from her shock in the first half, had been utterly ruthless in the second, scoring basket after basket and generally frightening the life out of anyone who dared try to interfere. Then, the minute the game ended, she had rushed to the locker room, pulled her tracksuit on over her kit and rushed out to confront her sister. Bubbles had taken her time about it, but she too had made a beeline for Blossom once she was done with her squad. In truth, Blossom didn't really know why they were so surprised.

"I just… wanted to come support you two. I mean, it's what sisters do, right?" The pair of them stared at her, and she scratched the side of her head awkwardly.

"Again, you _never_ come to see the games," Buttercup repeated. Bubbles laid a placating hand on her sister's arm and suggested that the three of them head home. Buttercup told them she would catch up, saying she had 'team business' to take care of, and so the other two left without her.

xxx

"It was nice of you to come to the game. I think Buttercup's happy you know, even though she'd never admit it."

"I suppose so. I just thought I should come see what you two actually _do_. I never really thought about it before…"

"Before Thursday?" Blossom nodded. They walked along in silence for a while, before she spoke again.

"Hey, um… you know, you're really good. At the whole cheerleading thing, I mean." Bubbles looked at her and smiled excitedly.

"You think so? I was worried that my performance might have been a little sloppy on some of the tosses. You didn't see that?" Blossom laughed.

"Oh come on Bubbles; you _know_ how good you are. You got offered that try out, didn't you?" She saw her sister's smile fade a little.

"Yeah," she said, the excitement now gone from her voice. "Yeah, I guess so." Blossom felt a pang of guilt as she saw how upset the mention of the try out had made her sister. She cast about for another topic of conversation, but none presented itself, and in the back of her mind, a nagging little voice kept prodding her to make this better.

"Bubbles, listen. I know I was… well, I was selfish about this whole New York thing, and I'm really sorry." Bubbles opened her mouth, presumably to mutter that of course it was okay, but Blossom held up her hand.

"Look, I want you to go to New York. I want you to try out for that team." Bubbles opened her mouth further, her jaw almost literally dropping.

"You… _want_ me to go?" Blossom nodded.

Buttercup caught up to them as Bubbles launched herself at Blossom in an overly enthusiastic hug, shrieking incoherent noises of pure, unabashed gratitude and happiness. Blossom buckled under the assault, landing unceremoniously on her rear end as Buttercup jogged over.

"What happened?" she asked, staring at Bubbles who was now frantically scrolling through the numbers in her phone, obviously about to call _everyone_ she knew.

"I'm going to New York!" she babbled happily, mostly to Buttercup. "Blossom said it's okay! I'm going to New York!" Buttercup looked sharply at Blossom who shrugged helplessly.

"I can't exactly deny that she has talent," she said. She made to get up, but found Buttercup offering her a hand, a peace offering of sorts. She smiled reached out gratefully, but the three of them suddenly froze as something flopped onto the pavement in front of them. Bubbles flipped her phone closed and bent down to examine what had fallen, while Blossom immediately averted her eyes and tried not to groan.

"Roses?" Buttercup said, watching as Bubbles picked them up and examined them. "Where'd they come from?"

"I don't know… Oh! There's a card… Huh? It's blank." Blossom got to her feet and dusted off her jeans.

"It's probably just a prank or something. Just throw them away and let's go home." But Bubbles was still looking at the roses intently.

"Hey, Blossom. April told me the other day that you had some roses in your locker. Is that true?" Blossom felt herself flush.

"It was just someone playing a joke, that's all. You shouldn't listen to gossip. Now come on, let's go." She marched off, leaving her sisters behind to exchange confused, and slightly worried, glances.

xxx

Alone in her room later that evening, Blossom sat on her window seat with a book on her lap and stared at the empty street outside. She had been less than impressed when she had gone downstairs for dinner only to find the four roses she'd been ambushed with in a vase of water on the kitchen table. Bubbles had simply shrugged, claiming that it was a waste to throw them out; roses were expensive afterall.

Now, she realised just how much this whole scenario was bothering her. Brick was going out of his way to deliver these to her and it was starting to get to her. Part of her wondered if he was really serious about this, while the rest of her was smacking that part on the metaphorical head and telling it not to be so stupid. She groaned and dropped her head onto her knees. For once, she wished that she could just skip all the 'normal' teenage problems and stick to the superhero ones. Saving the world was so much simpler than trying to understand boys.


	6. The 5th

_Sorry this took so long, again. I'm getting ready to go to university in a couple of weeks so updates might not be fast for a while. I'll do what I can though._

**5**

Bubbles spent the next day in a hyperactive state of happiness, offering to make a special Sunday dinner because she was just _so grateful_ to Blossom. Strangely, this only made Blossom feel slightly guilty more than anything else, and Buttercup also seemed to think it a little over the top. Bubbles wouldn't have to be doing it if Blossom hadn't been so selfish in the first place.

So, with their blonde haired sister bouncing off down to the shops to pick up ingredients for whatever she was making that night and the Professor still sequestered in the basement, Blossom and Buttercup were left with free run of the house. Naturally, Blossom spent the first half of the day in her room doing her homework and making notes for various subjects while Buttercup spent it in front of the TV, fully exploiting the one day a week that she had no sporty things to occupy her time with.

When Blossom came downstairs to make herself some lunch, Buttercup had dozed off, her hair sticking up at odd angles against the arm of the sofa. Seeing her like that reminded Blossom of when they were little and still shared a room. Buttercup had always sprawled out during the night, usually pushing her sisters over to the other side of the bed. Bubbles and Blossom hadn't missed that when they all moved into separate bedrooms. Still, they had been so much closer back then. Now, they were all so different. Buttercup barely spent any time with them at school and with Bubbles now going to New York, even for such a short trip, it felt like Blossom was losing them.

She sat on the other arm of the sofa and stared at the TV, not really watching it. It was funny to think really; a few days ago, she never would have stopped to think about anything like this. Her musings were interrupted however, by Buttercup making a quiet snorting noise and yawning, stretching her legs out so far that she nearly kicked Blossom off her perch on the arm.

"Bloss? What you doing there?"

"Just seeing what was on," Blossom answered, gesturing vaguely at the TV. "I wish you wouldn't use that nickname though; I did ask." Buttercup shrugged and levered herself upright, running a hand through her hair.

"You just don't like it 'cause Brick calls you that," she said smugly, rising and heading to the kitchen. "Is it lunchtime yet? I'm starved." Blossom glared but let the former remark slide.

"I was just about to make some sandwiches. I can put some soup on too if you like." Everyone in the house knew that Buttercup was useless in the kitchen, except for the odd slice of toast and that one reasonably okay batch of bolognese.

"Yeah? Thanks." She flicked the switch on the kettle and leaned back as Blossom pottered about.

"Hey, about yesterday. You kinda rushed off after those 'arrived'," she nodded to the roses, still in their vase on the table. "Something going on that you're not telling us?" Blossom blanched and nearly dropped the can of soup that she was opening.

"I told you, it's nothing. Just a stupid prank." Buttercup arched an eyebrow and Blossom hurriedly finished what she was doing with the tin-opener before turning back around.

"Listen, it's really nothing you need to worry about. It's just some stupid boy being an idiot, that's it, end of story." Buttercup looked less than convinced, but, much to Blossom's relief, she kept silent, fixing herself a mug of tea and sitting down.

They didn't speak again for a little while, and it was only as Blossom poured the soup into a bowl and sat it down in front of her sister that Buttercup opened her mouth.

"Hey, you sure you're alright about Bubbles going away? It seemed like kind of a quick decision." And there was Buttercup's uncanny ability to see through any front Blossom could put up.

"Well, I couldn't really justify saying no after seeing what she could do. Besides, it's not like I could really keep her here anyway…"

"Bloss, you know she'll do whatever you tell her to, really. She really wasn't going to go."

Of course Bubbles wouldn't have gone. That was just how Bubbles worked. She cared so much about what her sisters and what other people thought of her and, most of all, she cared about her family so much that she would literally do anything for them if they so much as hinted at it.

"Well, it's time I let her do what she wants, you know? I… I've realised I need to re-evaluate things a little. Besides, things have quietened down a lot recently in the city." She grinned. "I think if we keep an eye on Princess then we've got _nothing_ to worry about." Buttercup smirked and then started laughing into her soup. The two then passed the rest of the afternoon reminiscing over some of the spoiled 'villain's' more ridiculous 'crimes'.

xxx

Later on, sitting in her room and reading her book while waiting for Bubbles to finish cooking… whatever she was making for dinner (she had hurried her two sisters out of the kitchen before unpacking the ingredients), Blossom finally felt that things had returned more or less to normal. The fiasco with her sisters was finally sorted out and the whole thing was a huge weight off her mind. Then there was a knock at the window, and the other, slightly larger and substantially more annoying weight showed up.

"What are you _doing_ here? You have to leave, _now_, before someone sees!" Brick sighed theatrically.

"I come all the way here to give you these personally," he produced the bunch of roses from behind his back with a flourish. "And _this_ is how you show gratitude? Blossom, I'm _hurt_."

"Shut up and go away you idiot. I am not playing this game anymore. Seriously. It's over. No more roses, no more… I assume you class this as flirtation, and definitely _no more house visits_." He just grinned at her.

"You know, you're kinda cute when you get all snarly like that. Although my definition of cute might be a little outta whack with the rest of the world, given the whole 'created evil' deal." Blossom folded her arms and glared at him some more, with no effect, naturally.

"Oh come on Bloss; they're only flowers. Expensive flowers. I bought them and everything you know. And no, I didn't steal the money before you jump to conclusions."

"Brick-"

"_Anyway_," he pressed on, interrupting her, "there's no harm in accepting a present or… five. It doesn't mean I've won, although I'm still going to, don't you worry."

"Yeah, you wish."

"Now, now, don't be like that," he said teasingly, before sobering up a little. "But please Bloss. Just take them, just this once."

And even though she really didn't want to, he had got through to that part of her brain that was still an average teenage girl who loved being given flowers because it was _romantic_. Blossom hated that part of her brain right now. Really. A lot.

But she still took the stupid flowers.

"And hey, they even match your colour scheme, am I genius or what?"

"Oh will you just _go away_?"

"Ha, don't worry babe, you'll be seeing me a _lot_ more from now on."

xxx

"Blossom? Are you _sure_ you're okay? Is the food alright? I wondered if I put too much salt in the-"

"For the fifth time Bubbles, I am fine. The food is fine. The food is _wonderful_." At the harsh tone of her voice, Bubbles and Buttercup exchanged a look over the table that Blossom identified as the '_yup, PMS time_' look. Staring at her plate, she heard Buttercup mutter something like 'great, she's so going back into bitch mode now.'

"I am _not_!" she spluttered, glaring daggers at her sister. Buttercup, however, just blinked back at her in surprise.

"Not… what?" she asked cautiously, with Bubbles echoing the question. Blossom scowled. This was just childish.

"You just said 'great, she's so going back into bitch mode now'. I heard you." Buttercup paled.

"I didn't say that."

"Yes, you did, I heard-"

"No Blossom. I was thinking that, but I didn't _say_ it."

Silence instantly fell over the table.

"You mean, she read your-"

"Bubbles, quiet," Buttercup hissed while Blossom chewed her lip.

"That's impossible. I can't _do_ that."

"Doesn't change the fact that you _did_."

"Can you hear anything now? What am I thinking?" Blossom paused in thought and listened, but heard nothing.

"No. I guess it was just a one off thing…"

It was at that point that the Professor came bursting out of the basement with a worried look on his face.

"Girls," he said solemnly. "I think we need to have a little family chat. Now."

xxx

"What do you mean by unstable?" The Professor made a quick gesture with his hands.

"It's nothing dangerous, but I'm not entirely sure what the side-effects could be at this stage. It seems that Chemical X goes through stable and unstable periods, and the unstable periods seem to be due to changes taking place in the chemical makeup."

"Meaning?" Buttercup asked, sounding slightly impatient.

"Meaning that changes will be taking place in you. The unstable periods only seem to last a few days at most, while the stable periods span years. I've never even seen it until now."

"But what does that really mean for us? What are we talking about when we say 'changes'?"

"Like I said, I'm not entirely sure of the side-effects yet. However, given the fact that Chemical X is an intrinsic part of you, it will most likely manifest itself alongside your other abilities. In short, new powers."

When all three girls paled and Buttercup and Bubbles both glanced at Blossom, he sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"It's already happening, isn't it?" Blossom nodded slightly.

"It was just once, just there at dinner, so…"

"Of course. That's the other thing. Until the Chemical X stabilises again, these new abilities, if they appear at all, will probably fluctuate. In fact, it may not be possible to exert any control over them at all until they've fully developed. You girls may be in for a rough time in the next few weeks." Bubbles gave out a little squeak.

"But… the competition! If something happens that I can't control then-"

"Bubbles, don't panic. You'll be okay," Buttercup said, her voice almost suggesting that panicking was not a viable option at this point in time. "Professor, it should happen to us all at the same time, right? We're all from the same batch." He nodded, but seemed unsure.

"It's possible that you will all undergo the changes at the same time, but then again, the fact that you are all slightly different may affect how they take place. Blossom's has already started to manifest yet you two show no signs of change as yet, correct?" They nodded.

"I'll do some more research and see what I can find, but for now, you should try to carry on as normally as possible. It may be that stress or other factors could affect the process."

Blossom caught Buttercup glancing at her and stared resolutely at her knees. If she really was developing some sort of new power, and one she was unable to control, then the last thing she needed was to make things worse by adding stress to the pile-up. Yet if Brick followed through on his assurance that she would be seeing him a lot more from then on, then she just _knew_ that life was about to get very stressful, very quickly.

So, possible stress-induced unpredictable mind reading powers. _Bring it on_, she thought wearily. _Bring it on._


	7. The 6th

_Oh man, I am so sorry about how long this update has taken. It's just been one thing after another. First it was moving to university, then the chronic writers' block, the piles of essays I've had to do and to top it off, my laptop crashed and all the files got wiped. Anyway, excuses aside, I figured I _really_ needed to get back to this, so here we go._

**6**

"Blossom? Are you alright? Maybe you shouldn't bother with school…" Bubbles put a hand on her sister's shoulder as the redhead rubbed her forehead.

"It's fine. It's nothing, I'll be alright." Bubbles didn't look convinced, and was even less so when Blossom flinched and grimaced as Princess and her usual entourage swanned past them.

"I so did not need to know that," Blossom muttered darkly. Bubbles made a sympathetic noise.

"Well, it comes and goes right? Maybe it'll quiet down a little."

"I just wish I could switch it _off_," she grumbled. "Anyway, I think it's quieting down now, let's go." Bubbles watched apprehensively as Blossom strode off across the schoolyard and into the building, flinching and snapping her head around to look at people, unsure whether they were talking or thinking.

xxx

Classes were turning out to be a nightmare. If she wasn't answering questions that the teacher wasn't asking, she was being distracted by the thoughts of her classmates. They came in random bursts; sometimes there were blissful periods of utter silence and then a raucous chorus of pure _noise_. It was starting to make her feel vaguely ill. But thankfully, even through all the voices, there was one in particular that she was glad she _wasn't_ hearing.

_Of course I can't hear him; I'm in school, he never comes here_. But then again, there was that horrible niggling voice reminding her of the roses left on the music room door and in her locker. She pushed the thoughts away as quickly as they came to mind; there was no need to worry after all, he was just a minor annoyance. Of course, she'd been telling herself that for coming up to a week now, and he was still bugging her. She sighed and massaged one temple. Crazy out of control telepathy and an irritating boy with some kind of scheme up his sleeve; yep, this had been a wonderful week.

Somehow, she managed to make it through all of her classes and the nightmare that was lunchtime, catching up to Bubbles at the school gates.

"How are you feeling?" her sister asked, concern in her tone. Blossom attempted a stoic smile.

"I'm fine, I think I'm kind of getting used to it actually." Unfortunately, Bubbles wasn't buying the lie, although she was kind enough not to push the issue. Deciding that a subject change was in order, she hitched her bag higher on her shoulder and started walking.

"Have you decided what to wear for the fountain opening on Wednesday night?" she asked, knowing that the subject of clothes would keep Bubbles occupied at least halfway home. True to form, Bubbles started rapidly listing possible outfits she had come up with, letting Blossom allow her mind to slip into a blissful state of mental peace.

xxx

Buttercup came home surprisingly early that night, with Blossom hearing the door slam barely half an hour after she and Bubbled had arrived back. She decided that discovering why could wait until dinner and went back to her maths homework, only to be interrupted by her black-haired sister bursting into her room in a state of near-panic.

"Blossom! Oh god, Blossom, this is bad, I don't know what I'm gonna do." Blossom blinked at her.

"Slow down. Did something happen at practice?" Buttercup stumbled over to the bed and collapsed onto the pink duvet, groaning in the affirmative. Given that it was not Buttercup's style to get this worked up about anything, Blossom instantly clicked to what was most likely going on.

"You've developed a new power too, haven't you?" Buttercup hauled herself into a sitting position and nodded, looking utterly miserable.

"And it _sucks_. It's gonna ruin everything." Blossom tried to look comforting, but she was burning with curiosity.

"What happened?" she asked, joining her sister on the bed. Buttercup ran a hand through her already extremely ruffled hair.

"Well, I was just at practice like normal, and we were just throwing the ball around and then suddenly it was like… like I knew what they were all feeling. Not what they were thinking, not like you've got, but just feelings."

"What's bad about that?"

"It wasn't just that! They all started… acting funny. Towards me." Blossom's eyes widened.

"You think you were somehow _controlling_ their feelings?"

"Yeah, something like that, but I couldn't control _what_ I was making them feel! I just got out of there before anything _worse_ happened." She dropped her head into her hands. "I'm doomed. Totally doomed." Blossom put a hand on her shoulder.

"It'll settle down. You'll be able to control it soon. Besides, it doesn't seem to be working now; I'm not feeling any different at all." Buttercup shook her head.

"I don't think it works on girls. One of the guys' girlfriend was at the practice too, watching. She didn't seem affected by it either, even though I could tell what she was feeling."

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, with Blossom turning over the facts in her mind. It was starting to look as though the Chemical X wasn't so much giving them new powers as amplifying certain traits that the girls already possessed. Buttercup had always had a knack for reading body language and that had progressed into a form of empathy. Blossom herself had always tried to assess what people around her were thinking, apparently resulting in telepathy. With the pieces slotting into place, she immediately began trying to guess what Bubbles was going to manifest, but she was interrupted by Buttercup getting up to leave.

"I'm going for a shower. And uh… Blossom?"

"Hmm?"

"Make sure the Professor stays in the lab while I'm downstairs, yeah?" Blossom laughed at that, making her sister scowl as she stomped out of the room.

xxx

The rest of the evening passed mostly without incident, and Blossom finally put away her last piece of homework just after nine. It had taken her longer than normal, due to the fact that she kept looking out of the window every ten minutes. Sighing, she zipped up her pencil case and put it back into her bag alongside the homework. He still hadn't shown up. Of course, she was _pleased_ about this; why shouldn't she be? Perhaps it meant that he'd finally given up.

Of course, that was impossible. She knew Brick enough to know that he didn't give up that easily. He'd said 28 days and he would keep trying for that long. She shivered slightly, even though it wasn't cold, telling herself that she was being silly. Glancing at the clock, she decided that she could put in a little violin practice before going to bed. Just as she was taking it out of the case however, Bubbles poked her head around the door.

"Do you have a minute? I'd like to talk to you about something." Blossom nodded, closing the lid of the violin case again. Bubbles smiled gratefully and walked in, settling herself onto the edge of Blossom's window seat. Blossom herself sat back down at her desk and looked at her sister expectantly.

"Sorry to bother you about this and all, but…" she fidgeted with the hem of her skirt. "It's the Chemical X thing. I'm really worried about it. Buttercup said that she nearly sent the boys out of control by accident; what if I get something that's even _worse_ and then I hurt someone?" She looked up with eyes that, in typical Bubbles fashion, looked set to be brimming with tears at any moment.

"Bubbles, I don't think you could hurt anyone, even by accident." It probably wasn't as comforting as she meant it to be, but being Blossom, it was the best she could do. Bubbles' lip wobbled dangerously, but thankfully, she held herself in check.

"It's not just that… I know I'm being silly, but I'm kind of jealous too. I mean, you two have got these new powers and I'm still just… Bubbles." Blossom had an involuntary flashback to the time Bubbles had flipped out and beaten Mojo senseless, and, thanks to her telepathy, she knew that Bubbles was having the same one. Jealous Bubbles was not a fun Bubbles to be around, and both of them knew it.

"Look Bubbles," Blossom tried, going to join her sister on the window seat. "I know it might seem unfair, but we can't help it. Besides, you should be grateful you aren't having all of these… _problems_." Apparently, this was _not_ the right thing to say, as the wobbling lip gave way to full blown sobbing. At this point, there was a muffled bang from next door, followed by some footsteps, and the next second, Buttercup appeared in the doorway, looking rather shaky.

"Do you know how _distracting_ it is when I can literally feel _everything_ that you two do?" she demanded. Surveying the scene briefly, she turned to glare at Blossom. "Could you _please_ not make our sister cry?" Bubbles, to her credit, composed herself rather well.

"I'm sorry Buttercup, I forgot about your… umm…"

"Empathy," Blossom supplied. Bubbles nodded.

"That. Sorry to bother you." Buttercup sighed and kneaded her forehead.

"It's fine, really. I'm just still pissed cos of what happened at practice." Bubbles got up and patted her sister on the arm, knowing that Buttercup was not generally a huggy person unless _she_ was the one doing the hugging. Giving what was probably a grateful-ish mumble, she retreated back to her room. Bubbles gave her eyes a quick dab with her sleeve and looked back at Blossom, who sighed and stood up.

"I'm sorry Bubbles. I was being insensitive again." Bubbles waved it off graciously, the crying and self-pity out of her system.

"No, it's okay. I suppose I really should be grateful; Buttercup's in a really bad mood because of this and you've been acting funny too."

"Oh that's not because of this. It's this whole thing with-" She stopped dead mid-sentence, clamping a hand over her mouth. Bubbles' eyes widened.

"Because of what?" she asked, perfectly innocently. Blossom's mind backpedalled furiously, trying to correct herself, which had the unfortunate effect of leaving her looking like a goldfish having a stroke.

"I… It's nothing. Nothing," she stuttered eventually. "Of course it's just the telepathy. I mean, everything else is _fine_." She was conscious of the fact that blathering on like this was simply making the situation worse, and Bubbles wasn't believing a word of it anyway. She clutched at what few straws her mind could dredge up.

"Well, I suppose there is one thing. I mean, I hate to admit it but this opening ceremony on Wednesday is really stressing me out. It's important, you know? I don't want to mess anything up." She watched the expression on Bubbles' face move slowly through several expression, going from questioning to doubt to a grudging acceptance that this was _probably_ true. Blossom had been known to get uptight about similar things in the past.

"You don't have to worry about that Blossom," she said sweetly, as ever. "Your plans always work, and Miss Bellum is good at these things too." Blossom forced what she hoped to be a convincing smile onto her face.

"I know Bubbles. Thanks. And sorry for making you cry."

xxx

The near-disaster with Bubbles averted, Blossom dismissed the thought of violin practice and instead, took up the same position she had been finding herself in a lot the past few evenings; flopped on the window seat with her arms wrapped around her bent legs and her chin resting on her knees. She stared listlessly out of the window, noting absently that it was raining. He still wasn't there. Checking her watch, she figured that he wasn't going to bother after letting it get past ten. She didn't know why it was still bothering her, but the fact that he'd neglected to show up or at least deliver the usual flowers was making her uneasy. It was a break in the new pattern, which, even though she knew she should be _grateful_ for it, was still a break in pattern, and Blossom was _all about pattern_. Patterns were predictable. Patterns were _safe_.

She sighed deeply, swung her legs off the seat and got up. Pulling the ribbon out of her hair, she raked her fingers through the strands and headed for the bathroom. If Brick was trying to unsettle her, he'd managed it better with this than the whole bet thing. She'd concede that one small victory to him, but never to this face.


	8. The 7th

_Wow, I actually managed to write this all in one go for once; I guess my muse must finally be willing to cooperate. This chapter was incredibly fun to write for some reason, probably because I had to go re-watch some old episodes, for 'research' purposes of course. Anyway, there's a reference to the Season 5 episode, 'Power-Noia' in there; cracking episode. Hope you enjoy this chapter!_

**7**

"Bubbles, get _out_ of the bathroom, _now_!" Blossom smirked to herself as Buttercup banged insistently on the bathroom door. Apparently sensing her smugness at being the first one dressed and heading down for breakfast, Buttercup turned to shoot a slightly bleary-eyed death glare at her sister as she headed down the stairs. Bubbles, totally oblivious to the whole thing, continued singing loudly from behind the bathroom door.

Blossom's relative cheerfulness faded as she stared absently out of the kitchen window while she waited for her toast and tea to be ready. She knew she should probably be studying, she'd noted yesterday in class that her maths teacher was planning to give them another pop quiz today (telepathy was not a complete nuisance it seemed), but for once, she figured that she knew enough to wing it. It wasn't as though anyone in the class could even come close to her scores anyway, or so she liked to think. She vaguely recalled the incident where Him had forced her and her sisters to live out their worst fears in nightmare form. That night, she'd been on the verge of a panic attack before going to sleep anyway, all because of the test she'd forgotten to study for. It seemed almost silly now; it had only been kindergarten afterall, but back then it had been such a big deal, and the nightmare had really just compounded it all. If she was being honest with herself, it was still a big deal. Even if she was a little more relaxed about it now, she still put a lot of self-worth in the fact that her grades were the best in the school. Still, perhaps a lot of it was simply her ego. And even though she felt it was important, she was quite confident that there would _never_ be anyone at school able to compare with her scores, never mind beat her.

She took a bite out of her newly buttered toast. Everything was going to be fine. It wasn't as if she couldn't study before the class anyway. With that happy thought in mind, she quickly finished her breakfast and headed for the downstairs bathroom to brush her teeth, not giving the slightly wilting roses on the sideboard so much as a glance.

xxx

"Hey, did you hear? Just now, I _swear_ I-"

"But that's impossible, right? I mean-"

"Now, _I _heard-"

Blossom resisted the urge to grind her teeth as the people around her chattered incessantly about the latest rumour. She was managing to ignore it for the most part, with only the odd stray thought trickling in as she pored over her notes. As far as she had reluctantly managed to glean, it seemed that a new student was starting today, and that something was strange about it. She had simply assumed that it was because they were starting fairly late in the term and got on with her studying. Finally, all the talking died away as the teacher entered the room. Blossom didn't look up, keeping her eyes firmly on the equation in front of her, but she heard people's whispering voices rustling around her like epileptic trees. She couldn't make out the words, but the thoughts were coming in loud and clear. So the new transfer student was in her maths class. Wonderful, but she had a formula to memorise.

"Class, before we begin, I would like to- I _would_ introduce our new student, but… well, I'm sure you all know him." The teacher sounded flustered and Blossom's eyes suddenly shot wide as she stared down at the page in front of her. A new thought had just flashed through her mind. A new _voice_. But not new enough.

She snapped her head up to look to the front of the room, and there, in all his red-capped arrogant glory, was Brick. His lazy grin widened as he caught her eye, and he gave a casual wave to the class.

"Hi there. Don't worry folks, I'm not here to cause trouble. Or burn the place down and end school early, in case that's what you were after." There were a few quiet laughs, although they were fairly nervous ones. Blossom was vaguely aware of Robin shooting a worried glance at her, her bottom lip firmly between her teeth. Blossom herself was utterly shell-shocked. The whispering started up again, and the teacher swept her hair back from her face and tried to regain order.

"Okay, class, we're having a quiz today so if you could all put your books away. Brick, you can be excused from this since you haven't been in class."

"Oh no Miss Fisher, I'll take it. Might as well see where I'm at, y'know?" Miss Fisher looked slightly perplexed at a student _asking_ to take a test, but mostly managed to take it in stride.

"Well, if you just go to that seat at the back, then I'll start handing out the test papers. Blossom, notes away if you please." Blossom snapped out of her stunned stupor and started haphazardly trying to get her notes back into a neat pile.

"Oh Miss Fisher, could you wait a second? There's just one thing I wanted to do before class starts." Blossom stopped shuffling her papers and looked up slowly as Brick advanced on her desk. Predictably, he stopped right next to her, and she suddenly froze as she glimpsed his plan in her head.

"No, don't you-" But it was too late. With a flourish worthy of a magician, he produced the bouquet from apparently nowhere.

"I made sure to bring eight for you today; I was held up with enrolment stuff yesterday so I didn't have time to bring you any. I _do _hope you'll forgive me." Blossom remained utterly frozen in her chair.

"Y… y… I…" She was stammering uncontrollably. This whole scenario was just so _ridiculous_ that it couldn't be real. But she knew she wasn't going to be able to rationalise this as a dream; not with all the thoughts of her classmates streaming through her head and all the hushed voices and the catcalls from the boys at the back of the class.

Miss Fisher, looking completely lost after what had just happened, opened her mouth just as Blossom flashed past her in a blur of pink light, leaving her extremely ruffled both metaphorically and literally.

xxx

_Oh no no no __**no**_. Blossom finally stopped running once she got to the science department at the other end of the building. Leaning against the wall of one of the chemistry labs, she tried to catch her breath, but the sheer confusion over what had just happened seemed to have stopped her from quite remembering how to breathe properly.

"He can't be here," she said aloud. "He just _can't_."

"Who can't?" Blossom gave a small shriek of alarm as she suddenly noticed Buttercup leaning on the wall next to her with a small frown on her face.

"I was in biology; felt you coming," she said by way of explanation. "Something bad happen? You're... pretty messed up right now." Blossom nodded, her heart still pounding in her chest from the fright she'd had.

"It's… I… _Brick is in my maths class!_" Buttercup stared at her in shock.

"You can't be serious."

"I only wish I wasn't. He has actually _enrolled_ at the school. He's got to be up to something but I don't-"

"Wait a minute… You're not just worried." She paused for a moment. "Hey, you're embarrassed about something." Blossom immediately flushed, and subsequently cursed her pale skin.

"I'm, not embarrassed, I'm _angry_. I mean, he-" she caught Buttercup's look. "Okay, so you can feel what I'm feeling. But I'm telling you, this is really, really _bad_." Her sister put her hands up.

"You don't have to tell me Bloss; I know who he is and what he can do. Still, could be worse; could be all three of 'em. Hell, could just be _Butch_." Blossom sighed, knowing that while Buttercup was probably right, it wasn't going to make any of this better, _especially_ since Brick apparently hadn't given up. _At all_. Then, something in her mind clicked. Something that brought her back to being Blossom, and not just a panic-stricken bag of nerves and confusion.

"Oh no! I'm missing the maths test! I'll talk to you later; fill Bubbles in for me!"

xxx

She slunk back into the classroom as quietly as she could, but of course, this didn't stop every person in the room from looking up as she did so. She threw an apologetic look at Miss Fisher, who simply held out a test paper and waved her to her seat. With distaste, Blossom noted that the roses were still very much there, and had to fight very hard to simply put them down onto the floor, rather than throwing them down and incinerating them.

She quickly dug out a pen and got started, the answers coming to her easily. Even though she was still depressingly aware of Brick being at the back of the class due to the prickling feeling at the back of her neck, she still managed to settle into her usual test mentality. She was done in fifteen minutes.

"Alright everyone, I'll take in the papers now. Blossom, do you need extra time?"

"No Miss Fisher, I'm done." She handed over her paper and tried to settle in her seat, but was acutely aware of notes being passed and much whispering going on behind hands. Her telepathy chose this precise moment to not work, and so she was left with only her (enhanced) hearing. Even so, she didn't need to hear the words to know what they were talking about. That little incident was not going to go away easily.

"Okay everyone, while I'm marking these, go ahead and do exercise 5 on page 42. I'll reveal the top score at the end of class." She gave a pointed look at Blossom as she said this, and a few people muttered about how everyone knew who it was going to be. Blossom simply got out her textbook and started working on the exercise. The sooner she got out of here, the better.

When the end of the class came around, Miss Fisher stood up, like she usually did on quiz days, to write up the top scorer's name. However, this time, she paused.

"We appear to have a tie," she said. "Two students have achieved full marks." She wrote up Blossom's name on the board, as expected, but what followed made Blossom nearly fall out of her chair. Brick's name was up next to hers.

"He cheated," she mumbled to herself. "He must have." She left the class quickly, rushing to get to her next one. But all day, it was the same scenario. Somehow, he had managed to get into all of her classes, and in every single one of them, he was keeping pace with her work. She followed his progress in her mind; mentally watching him work away. Much to her confusion and, to a large extent, her anger, he didn't appear to be cheating. She was going to have to give in and face it; he was as good as she was, and she didn't understand why.

xxx

"I don't understand it. He has to be up to _something_, but…" Blossom let her head drop into her hands. "I just don't know what to do. And the fountain opening ceremony is _tomorrow_." Bubbles sat a cup of tea down next to her and took a seat herself, patting her sister gingerly on the shoulder.

"It's okay Blossom. We'll make it okay."

"Yeah," Buttercup put in. "If he tries _anything_, he's gonna wish he never walked into that place." Blossom looked up, her expression grave.

"Buttercup, please. You know how dangerous he is." Buttercup looked away, her hand unconsciously raising to play over where the scar on her side was hidden by her t-shirt. Brick had lost his temper that day, and none of them had come away completely unscathed.

"Umm… Blossom? Robin… she told me what happened in class." Blossom didn't have the energy to play it off as a prank anymore, instead sighing and taking a mouthful of tea.

"Like I said, he's up to something. He's trying to mess with me; get into my head. I don't know what his plan is, but I _won't_ let him win." Bubbles and Buttercup shared a worried look over their sister's head. Whatever was going on, it was serious.

"I'm going to deal with this," Blossom said stonily, her voice taking on the flat yet resolved tone she'd gained over twelve years of leadership. "I'll figure out his plan and I'll put a stop to it. By any means possible." Her sisters could do little but nod. When Blossom took that tone, they knew sparks were going to fly.


	9. The 8th

**8**

Blossom stood in front of the full-length mirror, pulling a face at her reflection. Sure, the skirt and blouse combination looked smart, but it just seemed… _off_ somehow. She tugged at the clothes impatiently. The opening was in two hours, and she still hadn't managed to get an outfit organised. Under normal circumstances, she would have an outfit picked out, fully coordinated with appropriate accessories and all ready to go. However, after having the week she'd just had, it had been hard enough just getting her homework done.

She pulled at the blouse again; it just wasn't going to work. As she wrinkled her nose at it, Bubbles poked her head around the door, half of her hair clipped up in a cascade of little ringlets, with the other half identically curled, but still hanging loose.

"Blossom, I've lost my other turquoise jewel clip; have you seen it?" She gestured vaguely at her hair as she said it, but stopped as she noticed Blossom distractedly plucking at her clothes.

"Oh Blossom, you can't wear that! Hang on just one second, I know _just_ the thing." And she was gone again, leaving her sister standing confused. However, Bubbles soon came back in a burst of happy energy. Babbling happily about how she had stumbled on the lost clip, she turned Blossom back around to face the mirror and held the baby pink cocktail dress up in front of her.

"See? It's exactly your colour, and it'll go perfectly with that jacket you bought two weeks ago." Blossom had to concede that the dress was very nice, and was a better option than any of the ones she had. Thanking her sister, she took the dress and proceeded to change out of her (rather frumpy now that she looked at it) current outfit. Meanwhile, Bubbles clipped up the remaining half of her hair and chattered happily about how much fun they were going to have. Blossom was reserving judgement on that one; there were still a lot of things that could go wrong.

xxx

"Mojo?"

"Jail."

"Sedusa?"

"Jail."

"The Gangreen Gang?

"Community Service. They're under surveillance tonight." Blossom ticked off the names on her list.

"Okay, let's see… Princess?"

"Attending, but her father is basically the reason this thing got built; she won't be making any kind of fuss in case it hurts his reputation."

"Right. And…I'm almost afraid to ask, but… Him?"

"Last I heard, He was in Vegas." Well _that_ was one huge sigh of relief right there. Blossom ticked it off the list and slipped her little notebook back into her handbag. Straightening her dress, she took a deep breath. Buttercup, still fidgeting with the skirt she'd been forced into, gave her a pointed look.

"Are you worried that the boys are going to show up?" Blossom said nothing, but it was evident that that was _exactly_ what she was worried about. Bubbles gave her a quick hug for reassurance, but nothing either of her sisters could say would calm her down much. There was nothing to _stop_ the boys attending, and knowing Brick, he'd just love to cause some havoc. He'd been winding her up all day at school; why stop now?

"Girls? We're going to start in just two minutes, alright?"

"Yes Miss Bellum." Bubbles gave an excited little bounce in her silver shoes, the skirt of her dress swishing around her legs. Blossom was sure she had picked that dress almost exclusively for that quality, but it _was_ very nice all the same. Even Buttercup was looking reasonably feminine, if a little uncomfortable with the concept. Taking a deep breath, Blossom gave her dress another little tug just as the Mayor began his speech about the new fountain. Mr Morbucks took the stage as well, holding the scissors to cut the ribbon. Eventually, after both had said their pieces, Miss Bellum, standing in the wings of the little outdoor stage, beckoned to the girls to come forward.

"And now, to officially open our lovely new fountain, please give a warm welcome to our local heroines, The Powerpuff Girls!" Bubbles all but shoved Blosssom onto the stage at the announcement, desperate to be in the spotlight. Buttercup followed them both with a tight little smile, the exact opposite. Blossom gave a small, rather awkward wave to the crowd before taking the golden scissors from Mr Morbucks. Holding them open in front of the ribbon, she allowed for a few seconds of camera flashes before cutting the thing. She handed the scissors back over and stepped up to the microphone, her sisters close behind her.

"We hope that Townsville has another happy and prosperous 100 years." She kept up the bright smile that was really starting to hurt her cheeks while there was a loud cheer from the citizens. Deciding to leave it at that, she was about to leave the stage, but was stopped as she thought caught a glimpse of red hair under a red cap, just for a split second. As she stood transfixed, the fountain behind her started gurgling as Miss Bellum got the water running through the pipes. After a few moments, it was gushing away magnificently and Blossom finally managed to tear her gaze away from that spot.

xxx

Due to the fact that it was February and the weather was therefore less than warm, the little after party that Miss Bellum had arranged for the city council, the donors for the fountain and ceremony and the girls was taking place inside a marquee set up next to the little stage. Blossom was about to retreat to a handy table near the exit, but unfortunately, was waylaid by Mr Morbucks and, even _more_ unfortunately, his daughter.

"Ah, Miss Utonium. I trust I may call you Blossom? Afterall, with your sisters here, it does get awfully confusing." Blossom gave a polite smile and an affirmative answer.

"Excellent," he continued. "I have to say, this little party is promising to be terribly dull, but a bit of positive publicity is always nice. Champagne?" Blossom waved a hand at the drink he offered.

"I prefer not to drink, thank you. I'm still underage." He chuckled, while Princess folded her arms and huffed out an impatient breath, obviously annoyed at having to behave around Blossom and her sisters.

"So responsible at your age. My my." He continued to ramble on, but Blossom found herself tuning his voice out as his thoughts came to her mind. Frowning, she cut him off in mid-flow.

"Mr Morbucks, I do hope you realise that my sisters and I are only concerned with protecting this town and its citizens. If you talking to me is some thinly guarded ploy to try and draw me or either of them into helping to boost your publicity then believe me it is not going to work." She drew some small satisfaction from the shock in his eyes that he only barely managed to conceal on his face before bidding him and his daughter good evening and walking away, throwing anxious glances to the sides in case she saw that flash of red hair again.

"What did he want?" Buttercup asked, sidling over to her sister as she sat down. Blossom told her it was nothing, and to her mind, it was nothing. The two sat in silence for a minute or two, with Blossom keeping an eye on Bubbles as she flitted around the room, talking to anyone and everyone. She loved parties, no matter the occasion. After a while, Blossom finally felt herself starting to relax a little. Of course he wasn't there. There was nothing to stop her from just sitting back and having some fun, right?

"Blossom. Something's not right."

"What do you mean?" Her hearts started beating faster. Surely he couldn't be here afterall? Buttercup squeezed her eyes shut and held a hand to her head.

"I can feel… something. Someone's coming this way, and they're…" She suddenly broke out into a short burst of laughter, with a hard and ferocious edge that Blossom had never heard from her. Suddenly, the same laughter broke into her head, coming from somewhere outside. There were words there too, but they were disjointed, too broken up by the laughter to mean anything. Even so, Blossom recognised the voice.

"Buttercup, we need to get Bubbles. Now." Buttercup nodded and stood, looking vaguely sick. Blossom shoved her way into the crowd of people, looking for her sister. She spotted the turquoise party dress after a second or two, elbowing her way through the throng until she gripped her sister's arm.

"Bubbles, we need you. We have to get out of here, quickly!" Bubbles didn't argue, instead quickly apologising to whoever she was speaking to and following her sister towards the exit. Buttercup stood outside, staring into the darkness.

"Anything?" Blossom asked sharply. She couldn't get a fix on where the laughter was coming from, even though it was still going on. Buttercup shook her head.

"Can't see anything, but…" She closed her eyes for a second, and then snapped them open. "They're heading straight for us."

xxx

It was Butch who emerged first, his eyes glowing faintly. Boomer followed after him, hands in pockets and a cigarette dangling from his mouth. Blossom felt Buttercup tense beside her. There seemed to be no sign of Brick.

"Oh look, we got ourselves a little welcome party." Butch cracked his knuckles. "Just what I need to get warmed up." Boomer spat his cigarette onto the ground and crushed it with his foot, saying nothing. His eyes however, flashed with amusement and just a little bit of malice under his shaggy blonde hair. Blossom took a step forward.

"If you dare try and hurt any of the people here, I swear I'll-" Buttercup suddenly put an arm out in front of her.

"It's no use. We have to fight."

"Buttercup-"

"No Blossom, we _have_ to. I can feel it, everything _he's_ feeling and it's making me sick. He came here for a fight and he won't leave without one." Before Blossom could react, Buttercup had already launched herself at Butch with a half-mad scream that didn't sound entirely her own. Boomer took advantage of her unwitting distraction, hitting Bubbles with an energy blast in the stomach before slamming into her, sending them both off into the darkness outside the circle of marquee lights. There was a short scream from that direction and a flash of blue light, then nothing more.

Blossom swayed on the spot. She couldn't see anything beyond the lights, only hear Buttercup yelling somewhere in the distance. Her heart started pounding. What was she supposed to do? She couldn't see _anything_.

"Bubbles. Buttercup. Where…?"

"_There _you are." Blossom spun and let off an arc of energy that lifted Brick off his feet and slammed him back into the stage. He lay there for a second, dazed, giving her time to fly over and lift him up by the lapels.

"Bloss-"

"_What have you done?"_ she demanded, shaking him. There was a cry from Buttercup somewhere in the distance, punctuated by a sharp burst of that insane laughter. Brick tensed.

"That's…"

"Butch, I know. You set up an attack on me and my sisters, right when we were at our most vulnerable. All last week, the roses, it was all just a ruse so I would let my guard down." Brick's eyes widened as she spoke.

"No, Bloss, I didn't. I swear. I didn't know they'd come." Blossom gave a strangled growl and threw him away from her, turning and charging off into the blackness of the park. She still couldn't see anything, and her eyes were stinging, but she ran regardless, trying desperately to locate where Buttercup's cries were coming from. The skirt of her dress flapped uselessly around her legs, slowing her down and she almost screamed in frustration. Then suddenly, miraculously, she heard Bubbles calling her.

"Blossom, wait for me." Blossom managed to make out her sister easily falling into place beside her, her eyes smouldering. Blossom knew that look, and took fierce satisfaction in knowing that Boomer would be sore for at least a week.

"Buttercup's in trouble," Blossom panted. "I can't even hear her thoughts anymore; Butch is overpowering it all." Bubbles nodded, lengthening her stride and pulling ahead of her sister.

"I'll take a look over this way, you go that way." Blossom didn't bother to reply, instead turning away and heading off. Buttercup suddenly gave a strangled yelp from somewhere off to Blossom's right, and she turned sharply towards it.

"Buttercup!"

"Blossom, help! My powers are-" she was cut off mid-sentence by a sickening crack and hiss of pain. Blossom managed to make out Butch's eyes glowing in the dark. As she got closer, she saw a feverish gleam to them that was beyond even Butch's normal frenzy. He was laughing out loud now, hitting an unconscious Buttercup over and over, in the ribs, on her face. Blossom was feet away, ready to knock Butch off her sister and show him seven kinds of hell for even daring to hurt her like that, but she was beaten to it by a blood red flash of light that hit him square in the chest, flinging him backwards. Blossom turned to see Brick standing behind her, fist raised and still glowing.

"You _moron_," he said, his voice flat and devoid of any emotion. His eyes, however, told a completely different story. Butch got to his feet, eyes defiant. Before Blossom could blink, Brick already had Butch by the neck, lifting him up and making him gasp desperately for air.

"You never, _never_ attack them without my orders, do you understand me?" He was all but roaring at his brother, and Blossom flinched as his thoughts swirled around her head, full of sheer unbridled anger that she would never have thought possible from _anyone_.

"I told you not to come here. I told you they were off limits. I told you _she was mine_." He threw Butch away from him, his eyes red hot and angry. Blossom dropped to her knees as the full force of his anger crashed through her mind, blocking out even her own thoughts. She saw him standing in front of her, saw Buttercup still lying unmoving, heard Bubbles calling her name, and then everything faded until all she could hear was her own pulse, pounding her into unconsciousness.


	10. The 9th

_I figured it was about time I said a big thank you to all the lovely people who've been reading and reviewing. Thank you guys! Makes a girl get the warm fuzzies I tell you._

_Anyway, I just have a quick note about this chapter. I have my own version of how Chemical X works in the girls' systems, especially in regards to healing them up after battles and whatnot. If you want to know my version of that, you're better reading my story '_Just a Different Sort of Perfect._' It's got pretty much a full explanation._

_Right, enough of me rambling on; back to the story!_

**9**

_Sounds like… something's burning… I can't see anything, I…It's loud. It's too loud. It's too loud I can't…!_

"No!" The Professor, who'd been asleep in the chair next to her bed, woke with a start as Blossom bolted out of bed and tried to run for the door, only to find her legs wobbling precariously and collapsing under her.

"Blossom? It's alright. Your sisters are both safe. You're home now." Blossom remained on the floor, gazing vacantly around the room.

"I… What happened?" The Professor helped her up and gently coaxed her back into her bed.

"I'm not entirely sure. Bubbles was in hysterics when she called me; said something about the Boys attacking you. By the time I got there, they were gone and you and Buttercup were still passed out." He reached for a glass of water that was sitting on the bedside table.

"Here. Drink it slowly. You had a bit of a fever when we brought you home last night, but it seems to have cleared up now. How do you feel?" Blossom shook her head.

"I'm fine, but Buttercup, she-"

"Buttercup will be alright. She's downstairs in the lab's regeneration room. With the amount of healing she needed to do, it wasn't safe to put her in her bedroom. She would probably have broken the bed." Blossom finally allowed herself to sink back against the pillows.

"I'm going to go and tell Bubbles you've woken up. She's been worried sick." He laid a comforting hand on Blossom's shoulder and left the room, leaving her to gingerly sip the water. For some reason, her throat felt sore. As she mused on this, Bubbles suddenly burst into the room, looking dangerously on the verge of tears.

"Blossom! Oh I was so worried about you. After Brick showed up, you just collapsed and started screaming. I didn't know what to do so I just _stood_ there. I'm so sorry!" Blossom tried to tell her it was alright, but she was in full-on hysterical sobbing mode by this point, and so she settled for patting her sister gently on the shoulder until she calmed down a little.

"Are you _sure_ you're alright?"

"I'm fine Bubbles, really. But I need you to tell me exactly what happened; my memory's a little hazy in places." Bubbles nodded and wiped her eyes.

"After you passed out, Boomer showed up and Brick started yelling at him too and he hit him, then he just dragged them both off and I called the Professor." She shuddered slightly.

"I've never seen Brick that angry before Blossom. It… it was really scary." Blossom had to agree.

"I'm just glad Buttercup was unconscious before he appeared. I don't want to know what might have happened if she'd felt that." Bubbles nodded.

"I hope she wakes up soon."

xxx

"Professor? I'm going to school." The Professor, who was in the middle of checking on Buttercup, turned around, startled.

"Blossom, I don't think that's a good idea given what happened. Besides, it's already lunchtime; don't you think you're better off just staying home today?" He looked at her pleadingly, but she already had her coat on and her schoolbag ready to go.

"I can't miss school Professor; I've already missed enough this morning to be going on with. Besides, I feel perfectly fine, and Bubbles is coming too." She gave him a sunny smile and headed back upstairs out of the lab rooms. However, after seeing her sister still out cold, she had to admit that she felt a lot less cheerful than that smile might have let on.

"Bubbles, come on. We'd better get going if we want to get there before lunch ends." Her sister emerged from the kitchen, half a sandwich hanging from her mouth as she buttoned her coat.

"I still think you shouldn't be going," she said, after removing the food. Blossom rolled her eyes.

"And I think you shouldn't talk with your mouth full. Can we go now?" Sighing, Bubbles complied.

On the way to the school, it started to rain, and so they cut through the shopping centre on the way to avoid it as long as possible. As they walked through the crowds, Blossom found that it was now easier to tune out the myriad thoughts that had, until then, been streaming in without much constraint. She tried it out a little as she walked, focusing on certain people here or there. To her delight, it seemed to be working, and the new sense of control put her at ease.

When they reached the school gates, Bubbles walked her sister to her locker and then said she had to head off to cheerleading practice. Telling her sister to be careful, she headed off in the direction of the PE department, leaving Blossom to head off to the staff room to try and talk to the teachers whose lessons she'd missed that morning. On the way, she tried to pick up on Brick's thoughts, worried about running into him unexpectedly. Thankfully, she heard nothing and had just started to relax until she rounded the corner towards the staff room and saw him standing next to the door, with Princess talking away excitedly to him. Blossom froze momentarily, her legs wanting to just turn around and walk right back the way they'd just come, despite her brain making a weak argument towards how stupid that was. In the few seconds this took, Brick turned his head slightly, fixing one red eye on her. She stiffened, and then drew herself up to her full height before walking towards the door of the staff room. That eye followed her, and as she knocked, he turned and walked towards her, Princess trotting along behind. Keeping her gaze fixed firmly on the wooden panelling in front of her, Blossom tried to tune into his thoughts, but to her surprise, all she got was a burst of some kind of static that gave her a sharp pain in her head.

"So Brick, how about it?" Princess was asking, but Blossom suddenly felt sick, unable to concentrate. She recognised the noise she was hearing as the same one she'd heard this morning before she woke up and there seemed to be no doubt that it was coming from Brick. Clutching her head in one hand, she gave a low groan as the pain pulsated in her skull. Brick, thankfully, had already passed by at this point, but Blossom suddenly found a very worried Miss Fisher fussing over her. Forcing a smile onto her face, Blossom somehow managed to tune out the static-y noise and got herself back on track, asking about the work she'd missed in maths.

xxx

After receiving a phone call from the Professor at the end of the last lesson of the day to tell her that Buttercup was now awake and seemed to be alright, Blossom had decided to take some time to practice her violin in the music rooms before going home. She spent an hour playing some simple pieces just to try and clear her head. Ever since the run-in with Brick that afternoon, she'd felt a little queasy and had tired herself out a little trying desperately to make sure she kept that static-like feedback blocked from her mind.

Sighing, she made her way to her locker to pick up the books she needed for her homework that night. She could hear noises still coming from the PE department, but that was hardly unusual. Other than that, the halls were silent and she was thankful for it. However, just as she packed the last of her things into her bag, a wave of static rushed into her mind, making her yelp as she desperately tried to block it out. Swinging around, she found Brick leaning on the wall opposite her locker.

"Are you alright?" he asked, although there was only a little tinge of concern in his voice. She tugged her bag higher onto her shoulder.

"Just a headache. Nothing that can't be cured by you not being around." He straightened up.

"I meant after last night." Blossom felt her temper rising, even at such a simple question, but she fought it back down.

"Disappointed I'm not worse off?" she snapped. He made a frustrated growling noise in his throat.

"I told you, I had nothing to do with it. Geez, why would I even come see how you are if it was me? And I stopped Butch, remember?"

"Oh please, Brick. Are you really trying to tell me Butch came up with a plan like that on his own? Or Boomer? As if I'd ever believe that." He stared at her with an angry glow in his eyes before turning and stalking away towards the exit. Blossom leant back against her locker, her legs suddenly feeling a little shaky.

Something in the way he had reacted to her disbelief seemed too genuine. Maybe he hadn't been involved. She tried to sift through her memories of the night before. Brick _had_ stopped Butch…

She shook her head. Obviously this had been his plan all along. He got his brothers to attack her and her sisters and then turned up just in time to stop them, making himself look like the hero of the piece. Was there any level he wouldn't sink to for this ridiculous game? Although something about that theory didn't seem to ring true, she couldn't bring herself to let it go. She had to hold on to something that proved he hadn't changed.

If he had, she didn't know where that left her.

xxx

When she got home, she found Bubbles holding her sister down on the sofa while trying to talk some sense into her. Naturally, she was being less than successful.

"Bubbles, will you let me go before I _make_ you? I am gonna go find that bastard and I am gonna-"

"I'm home," Blossom said smoothly, throwing her bag down next to one of the armchairs and sitting herself down. "Good to see you're feeling better." Buttercup paused in her tantrum, looking slightly confused at her sister's calm tone.

"Uh, yeah."

"I wanted to talk to you about last night." Buttercup finally shrugged Bubbles off and flopped back, running her hand through her hair in agitation.

"I dunno what happened. I mean, I was all out of whack anyway cos I was feeling all that messed up stuff, but then he _changed_." Blossom tipped her head to one side, giving her sister a questioning look.

"I don't know. It was like… Well, he's crazy anyway, but it was like he really _lost it_, you know? I've never seen him like that before. Bastard beat me into the ground before I could land a single hit on him." She stood up and stretched.

"Next time I see him, he's gonna pay for that." Blossom ignored that last statement, instead deep in thought.

"I wonder… it must have been your powers malfunctioning. I think you said something about that before you… passed out." Buttercup grimaced, but agreed.

Then Bubbles stood up, frowning and rubbing her temple.

"Bubbles? What's wrong?"

"I just have a bit of a headache, that's all. I think I better go lie down for a little while."

"Well I'm starved, so I'm gonna go sort dinner," Buttercup said, asking her sister if she wanted to be called down when it was ready.

"Oh, no thanks. I really don't feel all that hungry. I mean, I had a big lunch and I don't feel great. I'll grab something later, maybe. I think I just need some sleep." She gave a weak little smile and headed for the stairs. Blossom watched her go.

"I wonder… Do you think it could be her new power manifest?"

"Beats me. You cool with ordering pizza? We got nothing much besides bread and bananas. No one went shopping this week I guess." Blossom made a vague mumble of consent, still looking over at the stairs.

On top of the attack, the strange static bursts and her other sister now possibly gaining an out of control power, this week was shaping up to be just as bad as the last.


	11. The 10th

_Well, I somehow managed to get this written all in one go, which I was pretty pleased about. Writers' block has been plaguing me something awful recently. Anyway, cheers for all those nice reviews last time guys._

**10**

The first thing that Blossom noticed when walking into her chemistry class was that she appeared to be one of the last ones there; a highly unusual occurrence. Bubbles had still complained about feeling unwell and so she and Buttercup had taken a little extra time to leave the house, so she couldn't really say she was surprised. She took one of the two empty seats at the back of the class, just as the teacher walked into the room. Muttering a brief greeting, he started rummaging through the stacks of papers on the desk. Blossom rolled her eyes. However good a teacher Mr Brinson was, he really was horrendously disorganised.

The class got underway after two or three minutes of under-the-breath grumbling from the front and Blossom listened attentively as the experiment they were to perform was outlined for them on the board. However, just as Mr Brinson was about to split them into pairs, there was a knock on the door, followed shortly by Brick sliding round it.

"Sorry I'm late; there was… uh… _family trouble_." He gave a lazy shrug as he spoke. Mr Brinson, never sure of how to deal with interruptions at the best of times, was obviously completely at a loss with Brick, and so just gestured him to a seat and tried to get on with things. Blossom, after she'd finished running through the whole horrible list of what 'family trouble' might mean coming from Brick, suddenly realised that there was only one empty seat in the room and it was next to her.

He didn't actually _say_ anything as he sat down, but the wink he gave her, coupled with the lopsided grin was enough to get her hackles well and truly raised. Trying to remain composed, she did her best to ignore him and listened extremely intently as Mr Brinson continued pairing up the students. And then, instead of being paired with Amber, the girl sitting to her right, as she had expected to be, Mr Brinson paused, then put Amber with someone else and put Blossom with Brick, for 'security reasons'. She was horrified. He seemed rather pleased.

"Soo, science lab partners, huh? Isn't that how all great high school romances start?" Blossom bit back one of the more colourful expletives she had heard from Buttercup.

"In case you'd forgotten the little altercation we had yesterday, not to mention Wednesday night, might I remind you that I _hate_ you?" She punctuated this with a sharp glare. But, true to form, Brick blithely ignored this.

"Hatred is only one step away from love Bloss. Don't you read romances at all? Not that I do, of course, for I am all things manly." She supposed that this was meant to be a joke. She didn't laugh.

"Listen, I am prepared to work with you for this class, but do not think this means that anything has changed." She got up and went to get the equipment they needed from the cupboards at the side of the room. Much to her chagrin, he followed her.

"You know, you don't have to be _quite_ so hostile," he said quietly, leaning over her to grab a couple of beakers.

"Why? Afraid you might actually get the hint?" she shot back, picking up the last of the equipment. He simply gave her that irritatingly relaxed smile and took the tripod stand that was wobbling precariously on top of the stack of other things in her hands.

"No, but maybe if you stopped growling for five seconds, you'd see that actually, you enjoy talking to me."

"What? Oh, don't make me laugh." He gave her a pointed look, which she responded to with a scowl. He was baiting her and she was falling for it, and she was _not_ happy about it. So instead she tried to just get on with setting up and carrying out the experiment. He, surprisingly, kept mostly quiet from that point on, except for double checking results with her. Strangely, she found that working with him was exceptionally easy. He didn't need to be told what to do, and he didn't need help to put the results into calculations. He was on par with her and it really did suit her to work with him. That said, however, it didn't mean that she had to like it.

At the end of the class, Blossom managed to pack up her things and make it to the door before he caught up to her.

"Look, will you just leave me alone? Please?" He fell into step beside her, irritating her all the more.

"We're both going to the same class, why not walk with me? Besides, I have another little proposal for you."

"Oh, I'm just _dying_ to hear it." She let as much venom as possible drip into her voice, but he ignored it, as always.

"I think you're gonna like this one. Anyone can see that you're competitive in lessons, so I think we should have a little… contest." She shot him a questioning look, intrigued in spite of herself.

"What exactly did you have in mind?"

"Well, I'm thinking that I can get through all the work we get in class faster than you, and better than you, and I'm betting you think I'm wrong." Her eyes gleamed.

"I _know_ you're wrong."

"So prove it." At that point, she realised that she was trapped. It was a silly game he was playing, but it was one that, as stupid as it sounded, was important to her. Unable to allow herself to be seen to be outsmarted (because he was insufferable enough without claiming to be smarter than her too), she had no choice but to accept.

"Fine, I'll play your game. It'll be all the sweeter when you lose." He laughed and allowed her to walk on ahead of him and beat him to the next class.

xxx

"I'm home!"

"Blossom? Oh thank goodness." Blossom put down her bag as the Professor greeted her in the hallway.

"Is something wrong? You sound worried." He threw a glance towards the kitchen.

"Bubbles is… well…" Blossom nodded, understanding immediately. She nudged the Professor aside and entered the kitchen.

"Bubbles, are you okay?" Her sister hiccupped and sniffed loudly, but said nothing.

"Hey, come on, talk to me. Did something happen?" Bubbles looked up at her, her face crumpling slightly as her eyes filled up again.

"I… I…" And then suddenly, it was as though her skin _rippled_ and Bubbles wasn't there anymore. Instead, Blossom found herself looking at herself, albeit with Bubbles' tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Wait, what?" she said, dumbfounded. The Professor, rubbing his forehead, explained that he had heard Bubbles screaming earlier in the day, and had gone up to her room only to find Boomer standing there. Except not quite.

"I was thinking about that fight we had on Wednesday, and then suddenly…" There was another ripple along her skin and Bubbles was back again, rubbing her arms feverishly.

"Ugh, it feels horrible. It's like… I'm not me anymore. I don't like it. I don't want it!" Blossom laid a hand on her sister's quivering shoulder.

"Bubbles, you have to calm down. Remember, getting worked up like this might only make it worse."

"But…"

"_Listen_ to me, Bubbles. Just try to relax, okay? It's going to be alright. It'll just take a few days for you to get this under control and then it's all going to be fine." Bubbles stared up at her with scared eyes, and then finally gave a shaky little nod. At that point, Buttercup arrived home, and Blossom heard the Professor explain the situation to her in the hall before she entered the kitchen.

"Hey, you alright?" she asked gently, sliding into the chair next to her sister and putting an arm round her. Blossom watched silently, a small smile on her face. It was rare occurrence, but Buttercup did have that little caring streak in her that peeked out every now and then.

"I'm jealous you know," she was saying. "Shape-shifting is _way_ more cool than what I've got. You wanna swap?" Bubbles gave a weak little giggle, and Blossom let out a soft sigh of relief. It seemed that her hysteria had passed.

"Okay girls, I'm going to make a start on dinner. Why don't you go and get comfier seats, hmm?" They nodded, and all headed for the living room instead. Buttercup kept a protective arm around her sister as they sat on the sofa, and Blossom curled up on the other side, keeping Bubbles in the middle. It was funny; even though they both knew very well that Bubbles was well capable of fending for herself, they were still extremely protective of her. Blossom supposed that it was because Bubbles was the most open and the most prone to vulnerable moments. In any case, Buttercup flicked the TV on and did what they always did when they needed some cheering up; found the cheesiest looking sitcom they could, turned the sound off, and made up their own lines. Blossom didn't normally take part, but Bubbles still looked a little wobbly around the edges so she had a go.

As it turned out, she was extremely bad at it, but that seemed to amuse Bubbles more than if she'd been coming out with comedy gold, so she let it slide. She could endure one tiny blow to her pride afterall.

xxx

Later, as she sat doing her maths homework in her room, Blossom found herself thinking back to Brick's little challenge. Due to the fact that they were in all of the same classes (which, as Blossom had found out, had been orchestrated by the school to keep an eye on him), he had managed to stay true to his word on competing with her. He hadn't made it easy for her either, and it didn't help that she couldn't read his mind anymore without that horrible static squeal. Still, that would be cheating, and she didn't hold with cheating. Besides, it wasn't as though she needed to. She _was_ the smartest student at the school.

Even if he had been uncomfortably close to her in scores. They had drawn level in just about everything (he had a slight edge over her in art, but that _didn't count_). Oddly though, she had found it to be less than irritating. In fact, as the day had gone on, she found herself relishing the competition. Normally, school was just something necessary. She didn't really put that much effort into it, and it was easy enough to let the odd mark slide here or there since she didn't exactly have any competition. But now, she had to keep herself on her toes. Every mark counted, and mark he slipped was a small victory for her. For once, she actually felt _satisfied_ when the lessons ended, not just as if she was ticking off a chore on a list.

She sighed and put down her pencil. As much as she could still claim that she didn't like Brick, she couldn't deny that she had gotten a fair bit of enjoyment out of him being in the class today.

"Urgh, what I am going to do?" she moaned quietly, dropping her head into her hands. She couldn't let him know any of this. If he ever found out, then he might think he still had some kind of chance of winning that stupid bet. She supposed she carried some of the blame though; if she hadn't let him make that in the first place then maybe she wouldn't be in this mess. And the fact that he had ditched the roses plan only made it worse; now he was actually doing something that might work if she wasn't careful.

Of course, it wouldn't work even if she wasn't careful. Of course it wouldn't. What was she even thinking?

"Come on Blossom, hold it together."

"Are you talking to yourself? Don't tell me you're being beaten by homework; I mean, are you _ill_?" Blossom turned to scowl at her sister.

"I'm fine, thank you. Did you want something?"

"Just wondered what you were doing. Figured I might rent a movie, get some popcorn going. Make sure Bubbles is alright, you know?" Blossom shot a glance back at her homework. It wasn't due til Monday, and Bubbles _had_ been pretty upset…

"Okay, screw it. Why not?" Buttercup blinked.

"You serious? Awesome. I'll go grab her then." She grinned and ran off down the hall. Blossom got up and stretched. It was the first time she'd ever actively ignored homework, but strangely, it wasn't such a bad feeling.

"Bloss, c'mon, we're gonna go down to the rental place now. Better hurry or I'm picking a kung-fu movie!"

"You wouldn't dare! Not after last time!" She grabbed her jacket and hurried off to follow her sisters, leaving her maths homework abandoned on her desk.


	12. The 11th

**11**

"_Come _on_, man, you've had us stuck inside for ages; let us go out and have some fun already."_

"_After last time? I think not."_

"_What is your deal with that chick anyway? Last time I checked, you wanted her outta the picture."_

"_Things have changed. I wouldn't expect you to be able to understand."_

"_The hell? You come over here and say that!"_

"_Idiot. Just calm down and hold tight. They're none of your concern anymore."_

"_Tch, you're whipped, dude. I don't know what the hell's going on with you."_

"_Of course not. You never really did. Unfortunately, she doesn't either… For the moment."_

xxx

Blossom tried to continue eating her breakfast in a calm and reasonably normal manner, but it was getting difficult having two Buttercups sitting at the table with her. Noticing the rather strained look she had, the Bubbles-Buttercup made an apologetic face.

"I'd turn it off if I could…" she mumbled. Blossom gave an awkward laugh and tried to handwave the situation entirely. Buttercup on the other hand, continued to look just plain disturbed by having her doppelganger sitting eating porridge (which Buttercup herself would never touch even if she was paid to) and wearing a skirt, of all things. Suddenly, there was that little skin ripple, and Bubbles was back again.

"Oh ick. It still feels so weird when that happens." She gave a little shudder and went back to eating.

"I guess I should skip school on Monday, huh? I guess it would kind of freak everyone out if I kept changing into different people all day." Buttercup gave a little snort.

"More like you're worried that everyone will figure out the crush you have on the leader of the marching band when you keep turning into _him_ all day." Bubbles flushed fiercely and made a weak swipe at her sister.

"I am _not_. And I don't have a crush on him! I just think that he's nice, alright?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Just pretend you _don't_ have a sister who can read your emotions." She took a large bite out of her toast and chewed it victoriously. Blossom rolled her eyes at the exchange.

"I think you probably should stay home today. But you might be alright by Monday if you try practicing trying to control it." Bubbles looked crestfallen.

"Stay home _today?_" she whined. "But there's a skirt in the sale at Mimi's that I've wanted for _ages_ and this could be my last chance to get it!" Blossom ignored her, finished her cup of tea and stood up to put her bowl and cup away, although for some reason she was feeling sluggish. She had been since she'd gotten up. She noticed Buttercup watching her from across the kitchen and tried to perk herself up a bit, although she knew that it was a fairly useless endeavour.

"I need to go pick some things up from downtown; Bubbles, you are _not_ coming; do either of you need anything?" She shot a look at Bubbles telling her that a skirt, no matter how nice it might be, was not a necessity. Buttercup crammed the last of her toast into her mouth and stood up.

"I'm gonna come with you. There's something I wanna have a look at." She headed off to brush her teeth without waiting for a reply and Blossom frowned. Something in her tone of voice had seemed off. Casting a guilty look in Bubbles' direction, she concentrated, trying to pick up on her sister's voice. Once she'd tuned out Bubbles' inner whining about not getting her skirt (was it really so important?) she gradually filtered in Buttercup. Annoyingly, she wasn't picking up any actual phrases, just disjointed words here and there.

_She thinks exactly like Butch does…_ Blossom thought, wondering vaguely if she should be worried about that. However, Buttercup's thoughts didn't have the insane, jagged quality of Butch's; it seemed more as though she simply thought more in terms of images or feelings rather than words. Blossom frowned to herself, wondering if there was any way that she could train herself to read those kinds of thoughts as well.

"Bloss? Hey, you alright?"

"Huh?" She snapped out of her reverie to find Buttercup in front of her, already wearing her jacket.

"You seemed kinda out of it. Are you sure you're alright for going out today?" Blossom laughed awkwardly.

"I'm fine, really. Just got a little lost in thought, that's all. Give me a minute to brush my teeth and we'll go."

xxx

Buttercup was quiet until they reached the city centre, and Blossom was still unable to pick out exactly what was on her mind. So far, she'd worked out that she was worried about something, but that was really it.

"Hey Bloss," she said finally. Blossom turned her head to look at her, but found her sister staring resolutely at the ground.

"What is it? Is something wrong?"

"Well… I don't know. I was gonna ask you."

"What do you mean?" Buttercup shrugged helplessly.

"I mean what's going on with you and Brick?" Blossom's breath hitched for a second.

"Nothing. I don't- I mean, I have nothing to do with him besides being in the same classes." She started walking faster, but Buttercup, naturally, kept up with her easily.

"Okay, so now that you're lying to me, I definitely know something's up. Everyone's talking about the roses he gave you in class and you were walking with him between classes yesterday _and_ you both sat next to each other in geography and French."

"_He_ sat next to _me_. It was not a mutual arrangement."

"You didn't exactly complain about it much though, did you?" Buttercup stopped for a second, sighing and running her hands through her hair.

"Look, normally I'd just leave you alone, but I can't this time. Seriously, every time you're around, all I'm getting is all this messed up stuff that I know _I_ shouldn't be feeling. Or you." Blossom blinked, wondering what Buttercup meant and then wondering if she really wanted to know. There was a brief consolation in that while Buttercup was excellent at reading body language, she had never been quite as gifted in doing the same thing with feelings, even her own. Even though she now had the biggest insight into emotion, it was still quite possible that she wasn't able to interpret it fully. Blossom really hoped that this was the case in this instance.

"Buttercup, there's nothing going on, I promise. Brick is just doing his usual and trying to get under my skin; it's nothing major." Buttercup didn't look entirely convinced.

"I dunno Bloss, it doesn't feel like you're just annoyed with him. And those roses…" Blossom tried to shrug it off.

"He's acting a little differently than normal, so I sometimes get a little flustered before I figure out how to deal with him. Really, that's all." This answer seemed to satisfy her sister, since Blossom would never willingly admit to being flustered by anything unexpected unless it was the absolute truth. Of course, it wasn't the whole truth in this instance, but it was enough to get Buttercup off her back. And it seemed to have worked; Buttercup never mentioned it again for the rest of the time they were out.

xxx

"So, Bubbles, are we gonna have to help carry home the usual truckload of stuff on Tuesday?" Buttercup asked teasingly as they finished their dinner. Bubbles pouted.

"It's not like that!" she said, a slight hint of a whine in her voice. Buttercup just laughed, winding her up even further. Blossom, on the other hand, was slightly confused.

"Tuesday?" she asked, frowning. "What's so special about Tuesday?"

"Well, duh, it's Valentine's Day." Blossom's eyes widened, and then she let her head fall onto the stack of newspapers that were sitting on the table waiting to be taken for recycling.

"Oh god…" she groaned. This was terrible. Well, terrible was an understatement, but whatever. The point was, it was going to be _Valentine's Day_, in _school_, and _Brick was going to be there_.

"Are… you okay Blossom?" She raised her head sharply, swayed a tiny bit from the sudden head rush and smiled weakly at Bubbles, who was staring at her with wide blue… or not.

"Bubbles, you did it again." Bubbles smiled apologetically with Blossom's face

"I know, I think it happens when I think about a person for longer, so I was worried about you and then poof! I was you." Blossom nodded. It made sense, although that wasn't about to stop her feeling mildly uncomfortable about it. Besides, she didn't look right in Bubbles' clothes.

Buttercup, who had been looking at Blossom thoughtfully, finally spoke up.

"You're worried about it," she said, and it was not a question. "You think _he's_ going to do something." There was a ripple and Bubbles was back again.

"Who's going to do something?" she asked, in full-on gossip mode. "Does Blossom have a secret admirer? Who is he?" Blossom grimaced.

"It's nothing like that Bubbles. It's nothing at all, really." She sighed, kneaded her forehead and stood up.

"I'm going to take these down to the recycling bins. I'll be back later." Before either of her sisters could say anything, she grabbed the newspapers and strode out of the kitchen.

xxx

There was a slight chill in the air, but all in all, it was a fairly pleasant evening. Blossom took a deep breath and enjoyed the breeze blowing over her skin. Due to the fact that it was getting on for eight o'clock, the supermarket car park where the recycling bins were located was deserted. It suited Blossom fine though. She had dawdled on the way there, deciding to take the half hour walk instead of the five minute flight. Now, after tipping the newspaper into the appropriate bin, she leant back against the cold metal and stared up at a sky that was, to her pleasant surprise, largely clear.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered to herself, not entirely sure what exactly it was that she was referring to. Was it Brick's stupid campaign to win or over? The looming annoyance of Valentine's Day? Maybe it was just her own tendency to think about these things far too much. Either way, she sighed deeply, feeling rather fed up of everything.

"You're out late." She yelped and leapt away from the bin, whirling to find him sitting nonchalantly on top of it, staring skywards. Wondering how on earth he had managed to get up there without her noticing, she backed away quickly. He flicked his eyes down to look at her.

"No need for that; I'm not here to cause trouble." She glared at him suspiciously, but he simply directed his gaze back up, folding his arms up behind his head and lying back so that she could only just see him.

"Were you following me?" she asked, not sure if she really wanted to be talking to him or not.

"Nah, I wasn't actually; I was just out for a walk." He laughed quietly. "I'm not a stalker." Blossom made a disbelieving noise, but said nothing. There was no point; Brick could be maddeningly ambiguous in what he said, and asking him more questions would get her nowhere.

"It's a nice night," he was saying, his tone light and conversational. "Don't you think so?"

"I suppose." Even over something so trivial, she was not about to admit to having the same viewpoint as him. Unfortunately, he was more perceptive than that.

"Ha, guess we are more similar than you like to admit." She scoffed, despite herself.

"Don't tell me you're going for that 'two sides of the same coin' line."

"Nah, it's not like that. That's Butch and BC's deal. Us? Not so much. We're more like puzzle pieces." The fact that his tone didn't have that joking edge she'd come to dislike so much made her feel rather shaken. It actually sounded like he _meant_ that.

"Well, have fun," she said curtly, feeling that she needed to end this conversation as quickly as possible. "I'm going home." He propped himself up on one elbow.

"I could walk you, if you want." She raised an eyebrow at him, before turning on her heel and walking away.

"So, that's a 'no'?" he called after her, sounding amused. "Well, I'll see you at school on Monday anyway, if not before. That contest is still on." She gritted her teeth to stop herself from replying, but her silence didn't seem to deter him in the slightest. She could still hear him laughing even as she left the car park.


	13. The 12th

_I always entertained the notion that the girls would take up martial arts at some point, and so I got to thinking about what styles would suit which. Capoeira for Bubbles, since it's a more graceful one and I think a slightly more dance-like style would work for her, Aikido for Blossom, since it's defensive and offensive at the same time, and it's all about balance and control, and Pradal Serey for Buttercup, since it is usually focused purely on winning bouts, and concentrates on punches, kicks and elbow and knee strikes._

_In other news, I really liked writing this chapter. I hope you enjoy it._

**12**

There was something decidedly off about this situation Blossom decided. Normally, she spent Sundays wishing Buttercup would be quiet for five minutes instead of stomping restlessly around the house. This Sunday, however, she found that _she_ was the restless one, and that Buttercup was sitting meditating quietly on her bed, eyes closed and big chunky headphones firmly over her ears.

_This is just strange_, she thought to herself, shaking her head and making to continue along the hall to her room, but Buttercup had apparently sensed her presence and opened one green eye to look at her.

"Can I help you?" she asked, slightly too loudly because of the music that, Blossom was sure, was blaring at far too high a volume in her ears. She pulled the headphones down around her neck and looked at her sister expectantly. Blossom shrugged, leaning against the doorframe.

"Just wondered what you were doing, that's all." Now it was Buttercup's turn to shrug.

"Master says I should meditate a couple of times a week; says my balance is off or something like that." Blossom nodded. Buttercup attended a Pradal Serey kickboxing dojo on Wednesdays after school, as Blossom had insisted that they should all take up some form of martial art, but she had often complained that her instructor tended to berate her on her lack of inner focus.

"Can't say it's exciting, but I guess if it loosens me up at practice then it's worth something to do it." Blossom suppressed a laugh at how mature her sister sounded all of a sudden.

"Well, I'll leave you to it then," she said. Buttercup waved vaguely in her direction and pulled her headphones back over her ears, letting her eyes drop closed again. Back at a loose end, Blossom wandered slowly along the corridor to her bedroom. She'd finished all of her homework for Monday, she'd practiced her violin, run through a few aikido _kata_ in the back garden and helped Bubbles make up a batch of cookies. Now, she found that she had no idea what to do with herself. Was she usually this bored on a Sunday?

Wandering into her room, she cast a glance over the small stack of new paperbacks that she'd picked up yesterday. Although she'd reacted with distaste to Brick's comments on Friday in school, she could not deny that she was a die-hard romance fan. Sighing, she turned away from the books; reading didn't seem all that appealing right now. As she stood, still unsure of what to do, she was suddenly gripped with the sensation of being truly uncomfortable in her own skin. It bubbled up from somewhere in her chest and she was all at once frustrated enough to want to scream. Throwing herself backwards onto her bed with a thump, she grabbed one of the red velvet cushions propped up against the pillows and held it against her face, screaming into it. Letting it flop to one side when she was done, she stared up at the ceiling, breathing heavily and feeling only marginally better.

"Okay, so you need some help." She squeaked and bolted upright to find Buttercup in the doorway, headphones in her hand. Smoothing her, now slightly ruffled, hair, she got to her feet and tried not to look embarrassed.

"I'm fine. Just a bit… well…" She paused. She really had no clue what was wrong with her today. Normally, doing all the things she'd already done and then settling back with a good book was all she needed to fill a Sunday, but today, it just wasn't cutting it. Buttercup stretched and a lazy grin formed on her face.

"Don't worry; I know just what you need. Get your jacket on and follow me."

xxx

"Buttercup, this really isn't necessary." Her sister didn't answer, instead walking to the edge of the building that she'd brought her to.

"Well, when you feel better afterwards," she said smugly, "I think you might just change your mind." Blossom scowled a little and rubbed her arms. The temperature had dropped considerably overnight and the fierce wind was doing nothing to help, especially not at the top of the skyscraper where they currently stood.

"You ready?" Buttercup was asking, her grin wide and slightly edging towards the manic side. Blossom took a deep breath.

"I still think this is silly."

"Yeah? Well maybe you won't when I beat your ass. Not that it'll be a challenge; we all know I'm the fastest." Blossom bristled and then settled herself.

"Fine, if you want to be that way, I'll be happy to prove you wrong." Buttercup cackled wickedly, eyes gleaming.

"Alright then, on three. One… Two…" Both of them took off before she could say three.

"Cheater!" Blossom yelled hypocritically, rocketing down the side of the building. Buttercup only shrieked with laughter and pulled slightly ahead of her. Pulling her arms into her sides and stretching her legs as much as they would stretch, Blossom streamlined herself as much as possible, pulling level with her. They curved off onto street level at the same time, streaking over the traffic. The wind whipped Blossom's face and dragged several strands of her hair out of its neat ponytail. They tickled her ears as she flew. Buttercup was ahead again, still laughing, and Blossom found herself laughing too. It was almost exactly like the game of tag they'd played the day they were 'born'. She had the same sense of freedom, although there would be no destruction this time.

They screeched through the city centre, scaring pedestrians and drivers alike. It was hideously irresponsible and she really shouldn't be using her powers simply for her own enjoyment like this, but at this moment, Blossom really didn't _care_. She didn't care that she couldn't feel her face anymore or that her hair was a mess or that she could be doing something productive with her time because this was _fun_. When had she forgotten how much she loved to fly?

"Hey loser!" Buttercup called, three feet in front. "You still haven't proven me wrong!" Blossom drew her numb lips into a Cheshire Cat grin.

"You haven't seen anything yet!"

xxx

Later, exhausted, frozen and feeling entirely too happy for this to be real, Blossom lay spread-eagled on the roof of the building where they had started the race.

"_That_," she said, her voice slightly thick with a combination of cold and the adrenaline still pumping madly around her system, "was _amazing_." Buttercup, in a similar state to her sister, chuckled.

"Told ya," she said smugly.

"You did. Wow." She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath of freezing air. Somehow, the frustrated feelings of a mere hour ago had melted away, leaving her feeling like her blood was made of champagne; like she was just going to dissolve into little bubbles and float away into the sky.

"I haven't done anything like that in years," she mused. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Buttercup look over to her.

"Huh, maybe that's why you're always so uptight about stuff." Blossom smiled. A little while ago, that comment would have had her up in arms, but now she felt like she was incapable of being angry.

"You might be right," she said quietly, staring up at the sparse clumps of clouds that were blowing across the sky. Buttercup sat up, folding one knee up and resting her head on it.

"It was weird, feeling all that stuff from you. It's usually me that gets that way." Blossom blinked. Before, she had always felt exasperated by Buttercup's random and sometimes violent outbursts, but if what she had experienced earlier that day had been what Buttercup had been feeling _all the time_…

"Is that really what it's like for you?" she asked, propping herself up on her elbows. Buttercup considered the question for a second.

"I guess. Sometimes it's not that bad, sometimes it's worse. Basketball and the dojo help, but sometimes I really have to go out and _fight_, you know? Worst thing is, when I get like that, I find myself hoping that _he's_ gonna show up."

"You mean…?" Buttercup nodded, her mouth set in a grim line.

"I know it's insane, and I know it's dangerous, but it's the only thing that works. With him, I can really cut loose; really let go. Everything else just goes away and at the end, I'm finally spent. Can finally relax for a while. Can't say I like him, but at times like that, he's the only person I wanna see." She pulled herself to her feet and stretched her arms above her head. Blossom thought back to her realisation of how similar Buttercup and Butch's thoughts were, and Brick's comment about them being two sides of the same coin came involuntarily to mind.

"You ready to go home? It'll be dinnertime soon." Blossom snapped out her thoughts.

"Oh, yeah. It's getting dark too."

xxx

Later, Blossom settled back against the cushions on her window seat, sighing contentedly as she opened up one of her new books. She could already tell by the pastel coloured front cover that it was going to be another generic high school romance wherein unpopular girl would fall for popular guy, there would be turbulent romantic tension and then finally some dramatic event where he would realise his love for her. It would be stupid and fluffy and it would probably never happen in the real world, but Blossom didn't really care about any of that. She might not have admitted it before, but she liked being able to switch her brain off for a while and read something that required no real thought to get something out of it.

_Never mind what Brick says_, she thought to herself, her eyes flicking over the words. Apparently, this was a bad move, as the second his name passed through her mind; there was a knock on the window. She snapped her head round to meet his red eyes, frowning as she did. He grinned and gestured for her to open the window. Her only response was to stand up and jerk the curtains closed before relocating to her bed to read. She had had a very good day in the end, and she was in no mood for him to spoil it.

There were a few more taps at the glass, but they stopped after five minutes, and she enjoyed a private little vision of him trudging away along the road, disappointed.

_No sense in giving him what he wants so easily_, she thought gleefully. And then paused. There she went again, thinking things that almost made it seem as though on _some level_ (a very very, _very_ deep sub-basement level) she wanted him to win this bet of his.

"Ridiculous, of course," she muttered to herself. It was. Of course it was. Besides, it wasn't as though she needed or wanted a boyfriend anyway. She was a superhero; those kinds of relationships never worked out well.

_He has powers too_, a nagging little voice in her mind pointed out. Blossom found herself putting the book down. _Why_ did her mind feel it was necessary to point out a flaw in her logic? About this of all things. Picking the book back up, she tried half-heartedly to read about how bad life was for this particular heroine (a slightly dim brunette called Ashley), but it was no use. She only got through three pages.

"Stupid idiot ruins _everything_," she said darkly, slotting a bookmark between the pages and putting the book on her nightstand. "I told him no more house visits." Finding herself yawning, she looked at the clock. It was nearing 11, and so she decided that she should probably be getting to sleep anyway.

_Going to need it to deal with him again tomorrow…_


	14. The 13th

_Another chapter! Classes have started up at university again, and I'm busy sorting out a flat for next year too, so updates may be (even more) sporadic for a bit. I will try to avoid this, however._

_Reviews really help my morale, so please leave one, if you feel so inclined._

**13**

Today was not going well. It wasn't going well _at all_.

And the worst part was that it was only quarter to nine, and Brick hadn't even shown up yet.

"Princess, for the _last time_, there is nothing going on between me and Brick. I don't even like him; in any sense of the word." Blossom massaged her temple and hoped against hope that the other annoying ginger person in her life would just _leave her alone_. Unfortunately though, Princess, just like Brick, was as persistent as she was annoying.

"Are you _sure?_" she asked, her eyes narrowed and one of her smug little smiles playing over her lips. "Because I know our readers are all just _dying_ to know." Blossom took a deep, cleansing breath and told herself that Princess, while being a super sized pain in the rear-end, was still just an average human, and therefore it was not appropriate to punch her hard enough to throw her through the next three walls with force to spare. However tempting that prospect may be.

"I have told you everything I'm going to tell you, and if you dare make up one of your flagrant lies to put in that silly little gossip column of yours, I swear that I will hunt you down and make you _pay_." She punctuated this statement with an extra-frosty glare and swept away down the corridor to her first class before she was tempted to elaborate on what exactly 'paying' may have consisted of.

_Honestly, why can't things just go right for a change?_ she moaned inwardly, reaching out to push open the classroom door. However, just as her hand hit wood, the door swung open for her, and she looked up to find Brick grinning down at her, holding said door.

"Oh _fantastic_," she said acidly, pulling away from him and heading for her desk. The classroom was empty, and so unfortunately there was no one there to distract him, or for her to use in order to ignore him. Instead, she resorted to slamming her bag down onto her desk just a little bit too hard, hoping to convey the message that she did _not_ want to talk to him.

"Yeah, 'good morning' to you too," he said conversationally, flinging himself into his seat. "And a 'thank you' wouldn't have been bad either." She glared at him briefly before turning away and staring resolutely out of the window. She hoped he wasn't going to bring up her ignoring him at the house last night, mostly because it was his own stupid fault and why should he whine at her for it? She gave a quiet, almost inaudible sigh; she really did think about these things too much.

"Saw Princess had you cornered out there. Was she trying to get you to spill the story too?" Blossom noted that Brick sounded distasteful when mentioning Princess' name, which actually surprised her a little.

"Were you eavesdropping?" she asked suspiciously. He scoffed.

"Hardly; the less I hear of her voice, the better. The little cow grabbed me last week and tried to ask me the same thing." Blossom thought back to the previous Thursday when she had seen Brick and Princess outside the staff room; that must have been why Brick hadn't said anything to her as he had passed her.

"I thought you would have _loved_ to share that story," she said. Maybe it was baiting him a bit, but he had done the same to her enough lately; she reckoned that she should get a turn.

"You kidding? Public displays of affection are one thing; spilling a fake story about how loved up we are for that third-rate rag of a school paper is something else entirely." Blossom turned to look at him then, surprised at how sincere he sounded. He shrugged casually in response.

"I never liked her anyway; all money and no class." He sniffed dismissively, and as a few other students started drifting into the classroom, Blossom turned back round to face the front of the class, wondering if he really was as bad as she thought he was.

Besides, that last comment about Princess had made her smile, just a tiny little bit.

xxx

Bubbles was staying home, since she was still randomly transforming every now and then. They had discovered that watching TV with her was a nightmare; they'd had about three different actors on the sofa with them in the space of fifteen minutes after dinner last night, and so they had all unanimously decided that she was better avoiding school. Buttercup had laughed it off, but Blossom could tell that she was the most disturbed out of the three of them.

"It's not just the transforming thing," she was saying, in between mouthfuls of the burger she had chosen for lunch. "It's more like, all of this new powers crap. I don't even know where my head's at most of the time now." Blossom took a sip of her orange juice and frowned slightly.

"I thought you said it was getting better." Buttercup made a noncommittal noise.

"It is a _bit_," she said thoughtfully, "but I still have to be really careful when I'm at basketball or the dojo, you know? It's totally affecting my performance having to keep making sure that I'm not making all the guys go crazy." She took another bite of the burger, quite viciously this time.

"Maybe the meditation will help with that," Blossom suggested, but this only got a shrug and a slightly irritated noise. Buttercup really wasn't a meditating person.

"I'm just sick of not knowing if what I'm feeling is really what _I'm_ feeling, and I really don't like… y'know, the _other_ thing." Blossom smiled, a little awkwardly.

"It'll get better once you get more control. Besides, it could come in handy someday." Buttercup made a face, which then hardened into a stony glare over Blossom's shoulder.

"Bloss, heads up."

Blossom turned just as Brick slid into the chair next to her. Both she and her sister bristled, and Blossom registered all the whispering and glances flickering in their direction. Buttercup opened her mouth to deliver what was evidently going to be something threatening, but Blossom held up a hand.

"What do you want?" she asked, doing nothing to hide the impatience for him to be gone from her voice. He directed a glare at the group of girls who were staring intently at them before replying.

"Just warning you; Princess is running her stupid story. I'm thinking we'd better stop her before she hits the printers." Blossom's eyes widened and she only realised that she'd accidentally crushed her orange juice carton when she felt the juice running over her hand.

"I can't _believe_ this," she hissed, rubbing violently at her hand with a napkin. "Buttercup, I'll be right back. Come on you." She grabbed Brick's sleeve and all but dragged him out of the cafeteria.

xxx

"How did you find out about this?" she asked him, storming along the hallway in the direction of the empty classroom that doubled as the meeting place for the school newspaper.

"Let's just say I have my sources. Figured I should let you know."

"I'm glad you did; I _told her_ that I-" She stopped herself. There was no need to let him know that she was thinking decidedly non-heroic thoughts at that point in time. However, if this story got printed, then it was going to turn into a repeat of what had happened the day that princess got her first supersuit back when they were at Pokey Oaks, and this time, she wasn't going to have the armour to protect her.

They both hit the door at the same time, and as a result, the thing came close to being knocked off its hinges. Princess, surrounded by her usual gang of loyal subjects, gave a surprised squeal.

"Out," Blossom said, her voice edged with steel. Instantly, the girls all scattered and pushed past them, disappearing down the corridor. Princess also tried to run away, but Brick and Blossom grabbed a shoulder each and frogmarched her back to a handy desk.

"I… I don't know why you're both so upset," she was stammering. "I mean, I wasn't going to run that story. Really. It was just a joke." Blossom slammed both hands down on the surface of the desk in front of her, silencing her instantly.

"Brick, go over there and read what's on the computer screen," she said, her voice quiet, sweet and with the implication that if Princess tried to interrupt her or argue in any way, then she was not getting out of the room in one piece.

"Let's see here…" Brick was muttering to himself. "'Forbidden Love? High School Romance Between Hero and Villain; Princess Reveals All.'" He scanned the rest of the article, deleted it and then turned back to Blossom.

"She's all yours," he said, looking amused, although there was an angry glint in his eyes. Blossom straightened up, stretched, and then faster than Princess could blink, she had the wannabe 'journalist' by the collar of her jumper and suspended several inches off the floor.

"Blossom! Please, I wasn't… I wasn't going to publish it, I swear!" Princess was sweating bullets, clutching at Blossom's hands. Brick leant nonchalantly against the back wall, watching silently. Blossom, for her part, retained an impassive look on her face, her eyes full of contempt for the girl she held in her hands.

"I told you this morning," she said icily, "that I would not tolerate this kind of thing. But you just couldn't accept that, could you? You just had to push it. We've been here before Princess; you _do not push me_." With that, she dropped her, watching her sprawl onto the classroom floor.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she was shrieking. Brick appeared at Blossom's side, smiling wickedly. Blossom too had a twist to the corner of her mouth, but there was no trace of amusement there.

"You've never been sorry for anything in your life. You're stupid, selfish, spoiled and you have no class, but I'll tell you this much Princess; if you dare do anything like this again, to either me or my sisters, then I swear, you will know the meaning of sorry." Princess gave a tiny whimper as Blossom swept out of the room, eyes still blazing.

xxx

"Did you see the look on her face? Oh man, I think you've traumatised her for life." Blossom snorted.

"Well it's the _least_ she deserved. Honestly, who does she think she _is_?" She let out an irritated breath, and privately admitted that, underneath her annoyance, she was finding this whole thing just as funny as Brick seemed to be. That look of sheer terror on Princess' face had been immensely satisfying, it was true.

"We… we made a good team in there," she said, hesitantly. She wasn't trying to give him the wrong idea, nothing like that, but she felt she may as well give him some credit. He, for his part, simply gave one of his lopsided smiles.

"Nah, you did most of the work. It was fun though." There was an awkward silence for a moment, as Blossom wondered if she should try continuing the conversation or just walk away. The latter seemed appropriate, but then again, it had been quite nice of Brick to come and tell her about the article thing. As nice as Brick got anyway.

"I should really be getting back. Buttercup's waiting for me," she muttered. He nodded, but said nothing.

"Don't think this changes anything," she added quickly. "I still have no interest in you, save for stopping whatever scheme you have up your sleeve." That made him laugh.

"You know Bloss, that's just what I love about you; that stubborn, fiery streak. Always makes things more interesting." He continued laughing to himself even as he headed past her back to the cafeteria. She watched him go, wondering why her cheeks suddenly felt warm.


	15. The 14th

_Hi everyone! Sorry it's been a while since I updated. University's been making things a bit hectic, and I don't know when I'll get this updated again since I have two more essays to write in the very near future. I will try to get it done whenever I can grab a spare minute. Anyway, please leave a review, if you wouldn't mind._

**14**

_Oh no, no, I can't do this. I can't…_

Blossom fumbled with her keys as she attempted to lock the front door. They jingled obnoxiously as they slid through her fingers, landing at her feet. Cursing under her breath, she snatched them up and locked the door hurriedly, turning to find both of her sisters looking at her with worried eyes.

"What?" she snapped, shoving her keys into her bag so hard she nearly ripped through the fabric. Buttercup raised an eyebrow, obviously thought about saying something, and then thought better of it. Bubbles, on the other hand, bounced impatiently on the balls of her feet.

"Come on you two! We'll be late!"

"No, we won't," Buttercup sighed, rolling her eyes. "We're already leaving fifteen minutes earlier than normal as it is. Besides, you should calm down before you start turning into every person that gives you something today." She was apparently still slightly bitter about the fact that Bubbles had all but torn the two of them out of bed early; Buttercup _really _liked her sleep. But Valentine's Day may as well have been a second Christmas for all the fuss Bubbles made of it. Not to mention the ton of gifts and cards she usually received.

"Well, we won't be _early_ then," Bubbles said indignantly, adding a pout just to punctuate the statement. Blossom, ignoring the bickering, remained in a state similar to shell-shock.

_I'm doomed. I'm dead. It's over._

"Blossom?"

"I'm fine! School! Let's go!"

xxx

Bubbles disappeared from view almost as soon as the three entered the school, squeaking a hurried goodbye as her friends rushed her off to see just how big a pile of presents and cards she had received this year. Buttercup made a noise of disapproval; Valentines' Day was one of her least favourite days of the year, which no one had ever been surprised about.

Blossom looked about, trying her best not to appear nervous. She couldn't see Brick anywhere, which was something, although she was fairly certain that this wouldn't last long, and then all of her current nightmares would come true.

"You okay?" Buttercup asked, fiddling with the combination on her locker door. Blossom swallowed and nodded.

"It's fine. I'm sure everything will be alright." That was, of course, a big fat lie, and Buttercup knew it, but before she could call her sister out on it, she was distracted by her locker. Or rather, by the contents.

"What the hell?" Blossom peered over her shoulder.

"Is that a card? You got a Valentine?" They stood, dumbstruck for a moment, and Blossom wondered just who would be suicidal enough to send Buttercup such a thing. Buttercup, on the other hand, stared hard at the handwriting.

"Looks like… ah, it's just one of the guys off the team messing around." Blossom raised an eyebrow.

"Are you so sure? Maybe it's not a joke."

"Are you kidding? I don't _get_ Valentines; no guy in his right mind would like me. Besides, I'm not interested in dating or any of that stuff." She scuffed one of her trainers along the lino floor, making a squeaking noise. "And if it's not a joke, then it's just 'cause my powers have been messing with their head. It's still not real."

Blossom was unsure exactly what she was meant to say at this point. Buttercup was oddly complex for someone who acted as emotionally simplistic, and it was never clear whether she wanted someone to agree with her, or tell her she was wrong, and _of course_ there was a guy out there who liked her.

"I'm going to class," Buttercup muttered, crushing the card in her hand and throwing it back into the locker. She waved over her shoulder to Blossom as she wandered away down the hall, pushing between the crowds of students all clamouring to see who had got what. Blossom watched her, and then threw another glance about the corridor just in case Brick had shown up. He hadn't, thankfully. She was tempted to scan for his thoughts, but the memory of that hideous static prevented her from doing so.

"What's the matter Blossom?" Princess sneered from a relatively safe distance across the hall. "Nothing from your _boyfriend_?" No one was really sure what exactly happened immediately after that, except that there was an extremely bright flash of pink light and a scream. Whatever happened, Princess spent the next hour locked in a cubicle in the girls' bathroom, whimpering quietly.

xxx

Blossom wondered what a heart attack felt like, and wondered if she was having one. Brick, on the other hand, looked perfectly calm as he sauntered over to her desk before class started. Naturally, everyone else was watching them both intently, obviously waiting for a repeat of the roses incident.

"Blossom! You ready for that chemistry test later?" Blossom blinked and tried to speak, although her tongue false-started on her. Brick raised an eyebrow.

"What? You didn't study? Oh man, are you telling me I get to beat you without even a little bit of a challenge?" Blossom continued to simply look at him, wide-eyed.

"O-of course I studied," she managed eventually, trying to compose herself. "I would never go into a test unprepared." She fiddled nervously with the collar of her blouse, hoping that he would go away. He hadn't embarrassed her yet, but he may simply have been trying to get her guard to slip, which she wasn't going to allow. However, he simply wandered off to his seat behind her, leaving her feeling vaguely confused.

His behaviour didn't make sense. He'd started this whole thing off by being obnoxiously showy about it, _especially_ the day he'd started school. Why wouldn't he take full advantage of Valentines' Day to do something even worse? She turned this over and over in her mind, even as the teacher walked in and started the lesson. It made no sense, and she couldn't _make_ it make sense and she didn't like that. Not one little bit. Unfortunately, before she could try and analyse these thoughts further, the English teacher coughed loudly and asked if she could kindly get her book out like everyone else. Feeling herself flush a little, she complied, mentally cursing herself for allowing herself to be distracted like that.

The rest of the lesson proceeded like normal, despite the fact that Blossom still had that vague heart-attack-like feeling even as she was working. When the bell rang for the end of the lesson, she snapped upright and hurriedly started putting her books away. She reasoned that, if Brick _did_ have something planned, then the best course of action was to just avoid contact with him as much as possible. She just had to hope he wasn't planning on serenading her at lunchtime or something equally mortifying. She felt herself freeze all of a sudden; that really was a _horrifying_ thought.

He appeared at her side seconds after she'd left the classroom, and his sudden presence caused what felt like all of the muscles in her upper body to simultaneously contract; it was an odd, and not very pleasant sensation.

"What do you want?" she said, trying to keep her voice almost normal sounding, and not as though she was desperately resisting the urge to punch him in the face and run.

"Nothin', well, not anymore than usual. Are you giving in any yet?" She shot him a look. It was a good look too, one of those ones with a capital L; the ones you don't mess with under any circumstances. It was a look that she'd cultivated especially for moments like this. Unfortunately, Brick had never been one to pay attention to these sorts of things.

"So, that's a no, huh?" He shrugged. "Chemistry test coming up; ready for me to kick your, rather nice if I may say so, ass?" She sighed.

"Crude comments aside, I think you'll find that I'm more than a match for you, as always."

"Heh, we'll see, I…" He paused suddenly, and then laughed as they passed a group of girls in the corridor.

"Wow, what happened to Princess' eyebrows?"

xxx

The chemistry test had been easy (she'd beaten him, although only by a single mark), and lunchtime had been uneventful. In fact, all in all, except for Bubbles suffering a small present avalanche and getting a paper cut off of one of her cards after briefly turning into the person it was apparently from, it had been a very peaceful day.

Blossom didn't like it.

"Geez Bloss, would you lighten up already?" Buttercup complained as her sister growled at her for accidentally bumping into her. Blossom took a deep breath and made a slightly forced sounding apology. She had been getting progressively edgier all day; there was still no sign of anything forthcoming from Brick. It wasn't right because it didn't make any sense, and Blossom didn't like it when that happened. Still, school was over now, and that left almost no room for him to embarrass her in front of her peers. It did still leave the possibility of a house visit that evening, but that could be dealt with easily by simply ignoring him. Even so, something still seemed off…

"Well, I'm off to practice," Buttercup said, waving back over her shoulder as she walked away towards the gym. Bubbles had already headed off home with her towering pile of chocolate, cards and assorted gifts of questionable taste and romantic value, so Blossom would be walking by herself. That might give her a chance to clear her head.

However, as she headed out of the school doors, she caught sight off Brick sauntering off towards the gates. Leaving. Just like that. Suddenly, she was gripped with a sense of acute frustration, and before she really knew what she was doing, she was airborne and racing towards him.

"What is your _problem_?" she snapped, landing in front of him and gripping him by the front of his jacket. He gave her an odd look.

"I think I should be asking you that Bloss," he said, disengaging her hands from his clothing. "As far as I know, I haven't done anything today."

"Exactly!" she said, throwing her hands in the air. "Is this some new way to mess with me? Keep me on edge this whole time and wear me down that way?" His only response was to stare at her blankly, which elicited a frustrated noise from somewhere in Blossom's throat.

"It's _Valentines' Day_," she snarled. "And I don't think for a second that you don't have some kind of stupid plan to-" she paused, noticing that he looked nothing short of utterly confused.

"Oh man," he said quietly to himself, scratching his head. "Was that today?" She blinked.

"You... forgot?"

"Uh… yeah, guess so. Never paid much attention." She stared at him incredulously and then, against her will and much to his surprise, she burst out laughing.

It was a very short burst of laughter, and she clamped her hand over her mouth very quickly, but even still, it was a chink in the armour.

"I can't believe this, you had me on edge all day and you had actually _forgotten_?" She rubbed the bridge of her nose and tried to wipe the lingering smile off her face. Brick, on the other hand, looked as though he didn't know whether to be annoyed that she was laughing at him, or pleased that she was talking to him of her own free will.

"Maybe it's just as well I forgot anyway," he said finally. "You were bad enough when I _didn't_ get you anything; I'd hate to see what you'd have done if I had." She felt her smile involuntarily widen.

"Worse than what I did to Princess, yesterday and this morning, believe me."

"And _I_ didn't even have an insidious plan."

"Maybe not _this_ time. I still don't trust you." He pressed a hand to his forehead.

"Oh Blossom, you wound me." She simply rolled her eyes and started walking away, the smile still taking its time to fade from her face.

xxx

It was only later that Blossom realised that it was becoming far too easy to talk to him. That had been a perfectly civil conversation (apart from the beginning of it, but she wasn't about to split hairs), with _Brick_. That wasn't right. The worst part was that she'd come away from it in a _good mood_.

_It shouldn't be so easy, I'm meant to hate him…_ She was pacing in her bedroom as she thought it. She knew she _should_ hate him. She definitely had hated him up until recently, she was sure. Was something different now? Well, of course it was different, and he was acting different and… She stopped, turned and collapsed onto her window seat. This was getting too complicated even for her.


	16. The 15th

_Hi everyone. I'm really sorry about the wait for this update; things are continuing to be crazy, and will be for the next month. However, once the summer holiday rolls around I will finally have to time to do some proper work on this thing. In the meantime, I'll get working on the next chapter whenever I get a spare minute._

**15**

"The Orchestra are looking for new people you know." Blossom looked up at her blonde-haired sister, who sat filing her nails at the other side of the kitchen table.

"Oh are they?" she asked, keeping her tone neutral.

"I just thought I'd tell you. Apparently they're a bit short in the string section." She shot her sister a meaningful look, but Blossom diverted her attention back to her cup of tea. For all that she'd taken Bubbles' comments from earlier in the month on board, she couldn't just go against her own principles like that so easily.

"It's not that I don't _want_ to Bubbles, but I don't really think I should. I mean, things happen and you never know when something _really bad_ might come along." Yes, she was making excuses, and they were bad ones, especially considering the extracurricular activities that both her sisters managed to hold down as well as crime fighting. Bubbles, evidently, was as unimpressed by these excuses as Blossom was herself, but being as sweet as she was, she said nothing. Not that this made Blossom feel better.

But she still wasn't going to join the orchestra.

xxx

Even given the uncomfortable little discussion about the orchestra over breakfast that morning, things had been going well that day, they really had. Classes had been going well, Brick was more or less leaving her alone (although still not as alone as she would have liked) and Princess was still sufficiently terrified of her. Of course, this couldn't last, and it had come crashing down around everyone's ears when it got round to lunchtime. Blossom was not impressed.

"I can't believe you," she growled, kneading her forehead. "The poor boy didn't _do_ anything." Beside her, Buttercup's scowl darkened and she slouched further into her seat, looking every inch the stereotypical sulking teenager.

"It was his own fault."

"No Buttercup. _You_ are the one who flew off the handle at _nothing_ and beat him into a bruised mess. He nearly had to be taken to _hospital_ for goodness sake! We can't _do_ things like that!" Blossom could feel her temper rising and resisted the urge to take it out on the poor, innocent wall.

"We can't ever lose control like that Buttercup; we could _kill_ someone."

"Oh yeah, like you were in control when you flew off the handle at Princess. Everyone knows about that, but _you_ didn't get in trouble." Blossom blanched.

"That's different. She was out of line. All _he_ did was give you a Valentine's card." Buttercup gave a frustrated growl and diverted her gaze to the floor.

Apparently, she had found out who had been behind the card she'd received yesterday, and the fact that it had turned out to _not_ be a prank had not gone down well. Now the basketball team was a man down, and probably about to be a girl down too, considering there was little chance that Buttercup _wasn't_ getting suspended for this. Blossom slumped into the seat beside her sister and wondered if it was just the superpowers that caused her family to be so dysfunctional.

The Professor arrived about fifteen minutes later. He wasn't angry, he never was, but Buttercup was subjected to the crushing disappointment that always accompanied these kinds of trips to the school. Blossom couldn't be sure, but those might have been angry tears in her sister's eyes.

"Blossom, go back to class. Your sister and I need to have a little chat before we speak to the headmistress I think." She nodded and walked out, seeing the Professor put and hand on Buttercup's shoulder as she started protesting loudly about her situation. She walked down the corridor as quickly as possible as Buttercup's voice started to escalate in volume, trying to get as far out of hearing range as she could.

xxx

She still felt annoyed about the whole thing later, after school had finished. As she sat unpacking her violin in one of the practice rooms, she kept wondering why Buttercup had to be like that. Sure, she had… _issues_, but she had to know by now what she could and couldn't do around people. She pulled her sheet music out of the folder a little harder than necessary, tearing some of it in the process. People were too _fragile_ for that kind of thing.

Still, she knew Buttercup wasn't handling her new powers particularly well. Despite the fact that she had them more or less under control now, she was still edgy around everyone, still picking up on things that she had no desire to pick up on. Blossom knew that had to be hard; she was just glad she had her rampant telepathy under control.

After spending a few minutes clearing her head, she settled down and started to play. She had, as she'd always intended, skipped the orchestra invitational try-outs that lunchtime, although she knew that Bubbles would find out and that she would not be happy about it. Still, she'd given her reasons; Bubbles would have to understand.

Of course, there was more to it than that. Sure, Blossom didn't want to make commitments that could jeopardise her crime fighting, or make commitments that she couldn't actually commit to, which would make her feel awful. She hated to let people down, but that wasn't quite it. It was more that she was… well, she didn't want to say selfish, but she enjoyed listening to violin music, and she enjoyed listening to herself playing violin music, and she didn't want to have to fight against the rest of the orchestra to make her music heard. She worked alone as far as music was concerned.

She played through a few pieces, wondering what had happened to Buttercup. However, after a few moments, she stopped and put the instrument down.

"How long have you been there?" she asked, her tone resigned. She should have known that he wouldn't leave it at just one conversation today (not that it had lasted very long).

"About ten minutes? Figured I wouldn't disturb you."

"Well you have. Go away."

"But it's interesting. Could use some improvement, but you play pretty good." Blossom bristled.

"Use some improvement?" she asked, her voice straining to stay level. Brick got up from where he was seated on a chair by the door and stretched, wandering across the room.

"Yup. You've got all the notes down, yeah, but it's pretty boring, you know?" He started inspecting the piano beside the far wall. Blossom scoffed at his comment.

"Oh please. Classical music is sophisticated; it's meant to evoke emotions, but of course, you wouldn't know sophistication if it bit you in the-"

Brick's fingers hit the piano keys. Blossom fell silent.

It was a very short piece, only lasting a minute or two, and she recognised it, she'd heard it before, but not like this. He wasn't even looking at the keys as he played, but he was _playing_ it. To the point where Blossom wasn't sure if it wasn't playing _him_. Her hands went slack around her violin and as he finished, she nearly dropped it.

"What… How…? I mean, _when_ did you learn to play the piano?" _And how did you learn to play it like _that_?_

"About the same time as I decided I'd better start studying. I figured I couldn't be stuck playing second fiddle to my rival forever, no pun intended of course." Blossom blinked at him.

"I mean," he continued. "I got pretty sick of you calling me dumb, so I decided to, y'know, not be dumb anymore. Took a hell of a lot of work too; five years of home study and I had to actually find a _teacher_ for the piano thing. Butch and Boomer thought I'd lost it. Still, it paid off in the end. Girls _love_ this kind of thing."

Blossom's head was spinning. She'd wondered how he had managed to be her equal in all their classes, but she'd kind of ended up assuming that he had just been lazy when he was younger; that he was really as smart as she was. It had been stupid, but it was the only explanation she had found. Now, knowing that he had actually worked _that_ hard just to catch up with her was slightly humbling, especially given that she'd never really had to _try_ to be good at things before he'd come to school. She really hadn't credited him with that level of dedication.

"You… uh… You play really well," she said, rather lamely.

"Thanks. You play pretty good too, but you're relying on the notes too much."

"What? That doesn't even make sense! The notes are what make up the music and-" He held up a hand as she started to get on the offensive. Again. She really had to get her temper in check; not that she was going to admit that to him.

"What I mean is, you're just sort of… I dunno. You're not _engaging _with it. Yes, that's it!" He looked so proud of himself for coming up with that that Blossom almost forgot to be puzzled.

"I still don't understand. My teacher says I'm a brilliant player. Not to brag or anything, of course." Brick shrugged.

"Yeah, you are brilliant, at the technical part of playing. You're just not getting the 'musical' part of it. You were the one who said classical music was meant to evoke emotion, and I got nothing from you." He leaned over and grinned at her. "Ever the ice queen, aren't you?" She felt her lip curl.

"I'm going home," she snarled, getting up and starting to pack her violin away, muttering viciously about not letting herself talk to him anymore.

"You know, you could try proving me wrong instead."

"And how exactly am I supposed to do that? Evidently my skills just can't match up to yours." He rolled his eyes at the sarcasm.

"Sit down, close your eyes and play." She folded her arms and looked at him.

"I mean it," he continued. "Don't look at any music, just sit down and listen to what you're playing."

After a few moments of deliberation, and against her better judgement, her competitive streak gave her a firm nudge, and so she sat down and got the violin back out of its case.

"I still think you're talking nonsense."

"Then why did you look so impressed when I was playing the piano? Now come on, just close your eyes and play something." She shot him a suspicious glare, in response to which he laughed and simply moved away to the other side of the room. Not really feeling any less worried that he was going to try something stupid that may or may not lead to injury (for him, of course), she took a deep breath, positioned the violin on her shoulder, bow on the strings, and closed her eyes.

She chose a Bach piece, determined to prove Brick didn't know what he was talking about. Unfortunately though, as she played, she realised that it really did sound kind of... flat. She stopped.

"That... that's not... I..." She stared down at the violin in her hands. The notes had all been correct; it had been in perfect time, it just wasn't _right_. Brick wandered over from the other side of the room, and she looked up at him.

"How did you notice that and I didn't? You aren't supposed to be _good_ at this. You aren't supposed to be _better_ than _me_. I'm the hero; I'm the one who's meant to be good at things, not you." He simply shrugged, which was somehow worse than one of his silly little macho boasts.

This was ridiculous. She wasn't supposed to feel this way. She wasn't meant to feel inferior to someone like Brick. She wasn't supposed to even be considering what she was about to say.

"Brick. Help me."

"What?"

"You heard me. Help me. Teach me how to play properly; you seem to know how." She was refusing to look at him at this point, although she was sure she could imagine the smug, satisfied look on his face.

"Can't believe you're asking _me_ for help," he said, laughing. She looked up to shoot him with a glare, but was struck by how genuinely _happy_ he looked, although there were definitely smug undertones.

"You got a deal Bloss, I'll help you out." She raised an eyebrow.

"Just like that? What's the catch? Because if it's something to do with this '28 days' thing then I'm retracting the request." He held up his hands in mock surrender.

"Nothing like that, I promise. Buut... there _is_ something..."

"What?" He grinned.

"Not telling. You'll just have to wait and see."

"You-"

"Ah, ah, no arguing. I'll see you tomorrow, same time, same place. And I'm going to thrash you in that biology test too, just for good measure."

He left, and Blossom was left sitting there and wondering what in the heck she had just gotten herself into.


	17. The 16th

_Here we are, next chapter! Gosh guys, I am really sorry about the wait. The good news is that the next three chapters _will _be ready and uploaded soon. I promise._

**16**

"This is ridiculous."

"No, you just aren't willing to actually _try_."

"Because it's ridiculous!"

Brick sighed, slightly melodramatically, as Blossom all but threw the sheet music he'd brought back in his face.

"I'm telling you, this is the perfect piece to practice this with initially." She gave a frustrated sigh and fixed him with a look of weary annoyance.

"Brick, I have played the violin for 9 years. I can play almost any classic piece you can name. I am _not_ going to sit here and play '_Puff the Magic Dragon_'!"

"Why not?"

"Because it is a children's song! It is not going to help me play the violin better! Urgh, I knew this was a mistake. I'm going home."

"Oh come _on_ Bloss, are you going to give in that easily? Besides, do you even know this song? It's an emotional piece! You know, the kid and the dragon are best friends but then the kid grows up and he can't go and play with Puff anymore and he forgets him. Tell me that isn't sad, huh?" Blossom stared at him for a few seconds, and then burst out laughing.

"I can't believe you are this serious about such a silly old song. Fine, you know what? I'll play it. Maybe then you'll get off my back." She sat herself back down and propped the violin up on her shoulder. She'd already memorised the notes, so there was no need for the music, which Brick had advised her to avoid using anyway.

_Still can't believe I've let it come to this_, she thought to herself grimly. Still, she played. It was silly and childish, but she played it anyway. However, it still didn't sound right. It was such a simple, stupid song and it still didn't sound right. She stopped short a few notes before finishing and stared dumbly at her hands, still clutching the violin and bow.

"What am I doing wrong exactly?" she muttered, mostly to herself. Brick said nothing, just smirked to himself behind a sheaf of music sheets. She growled at him to grow up and got up to go home, for real this time. He still said nothing, but he did wander over to the piano again.

"Oh what now, showing off?" she asked darkly. He shrugged.

"Just getting in some of my own practice. I mean, I need to keep my skills sharp." She watched him as he sat down and ran his fingers over the keys before starting to play. Of course, he decided to play '_Puff the Magic Dragon_' probably as some kind of insult. Still, it sounded kinda nice the way he played. She was still holding the violin; she hadn't really started putting it away. Sneaking a glance to see if he was looking at her, she lifted it back up onto her shoulder and drew the bow over the strings, coming into the song at the same point he'd reached. He glanced up as she started, but then went back to his own playing.

Oddly, it did sound better playing along with someone else. Of course, that might have been to do with the fact that she was determined that she wouldn't be outdone in a fair match. Whatever it was, something about playing along with him was making her play better, was making her listen more closely to the music, making her more bold with her bow strokes. They played through it a few times before Brick finished up the third rendition with a showy flourish of chords.

"Not too bad for Little Miss Ice Queen. I'm almost impressed." She gave a sarcastic laugh.

"Very funny. Now I really, _really_ am going home this time."

"Can I walk you?"

"No."

xxx

Brick had ended up walking her partway home anyway, despite her protests, but at least he hadn't try to get all the way to the front door. Bubbles greeted her in the front hall as she padded through from the kitchen to the sitting room, bowl of ice cream in hand.

"Have you seen Buttercup? She's not home yet." Blossom frowned as she set down her bag and violin case and flopped onto the sofa next to her sister.

"Really? I guess practice must be running late tonight."

"I thought so too, but I didn't think the team _had_ practice tonight. Then again, I think there's a tournament coming up soon, so she's probably bullying them into doing more. Want some?" Blossom took the proffered bowl and jabbed the spoon into the ice cream.

"You okay? Normally you're not as edgy when you've been practicing. And you don't normally have sweets before dinner either." Blossom attempted a nonchalant shrug and sucked on the spoon for a few seconds after she swallowed her mouthful, although the metal tang it left in her mouth was less than pleasant.

"Was it Brick again?" She considered lying, but eventually just nodded. Strangely, Bubbles didn't ask any more questions on the subject, she just went to the kitchen to grab another spoon and the rest of the tub of ice cream.

"Buttercup's making dinner again tonight, so we may as well dig in before she gets home." Blossom didn't bother arguing and just took the tub without a word.

xxx

"Girls, have either of you heard from Buttercup? I tried calling her, but I'm not getting an answer." Blossom checked her watch and found that it was getting close to nine. Even if Buttercup had had practice that day, she would have been done and home by now, _especially _since she was cooking dinner and was still making it up to the Professor for yesterday; It had been a small miracle that he'd managed to talk the headmistress out of suspending her from school and from the sports team, and she knew it.

"Shall I go down to the school and see if she's there?" Bubbles was offering. The Professor shook his head, but he still looked worried.

"I'm sure it's nothing, but we agreed that she'd be home by eight for the next two weeks, and that'd she'd make dinner. She seemed content enough with the arrangement, so..." Blossom got out her phone and tried calling her, but sure enough, it went straight to voicemail.

"Something about this seems a little off," she muttered. Buttercup had been repentant about yesterday, even if it had taken her a long time to admit it. There was no reason for her to disappear like this, and despite her moody attitude, she was not really one to sulk over punishment.

"I'm gonna call for pizza for now; I'm hungry." Blossom could see that Bubbles was worried, and it was made more obvious by the fact that her hair kept flickering back and forth from long and blonde to short and black, and her eyes were green, but she was keeping a brave face on it and trying to act normally.

"Good idea," the Professor said, the worry also apparent in his voice. Blossom tried to concentrate on the English essay she'd been working on, but now that this had been called to her attention, it was hard to think about much else. After about ten minutes, she gave up and put it aside.

"I'm going out to look for her," she said, heading for the hall and grabbing her jacket on the way. However, she'd just put it on when the door opened, and Buttercup came stumbling around it.

"Oh my god..." Bubbles rushed past Blossom as Buttercup entered, battered, bruised and bleeding from a cut on her cheek. Blossom simply stood there staring at her in shock.

"Professor! Professor come quick!" Buttercup was mumbling protests as Bubbles tried to examine her injuries.

"Quickly, get her upstairs," the Professor said, looking extremely pale. Blossom finally got herself moving, helping Bubbles to carry their sister to her room.

"I'm fine, I'm _fine_," Buttercup was saying, sounding half annoyed, half pure exhausted as they got her laid out on the bed. She tried to sit up, only for Bubbles to push her back down.

"You are not fine, and you are going to lie here at least until the Professor takes a proper look at you, now stop arguing." Buttercup made a noise that may have been a swearword, but was interrupted by the Professor entering with a first aid kit.

"Can I ask you two to wait outside? I'll call if I need you for anything." Bubbles looked like she was going to argue, but Blossom pushed her outside without a word.

"It's better if he talks to her first. She listens to him; maybe she'll tell him what happened," she explained afterwards. Bubbles nodded, but still looked worried.

"She never gets injured that badly... This is almost as bad as at the ceremony." Blossom nodded grimly. She had a feeling that Butch was involved with this, but she wasn't sure how yet. She would talk to Buttercup later, and hopefully get to the bottom of it.

xxx

"_Seriously man, what is up with your obsession with her? I don't get it."_

"_I told you; you wouldn't understand, and I'm not going to explain it."_

_And he wouldn't. Not to either of his brothers. Hell, he barely understood it himself. Before, he would never have thought that he was capable of this... this feeling, whatever it was. He had never been interested in her before. Was it as simple as a cliché? He had always loved being in control, being in power, but she had always thwarted him in that regard. Was that the reason for this? He wanted her because he couldn't control her? Or because he _wanted_ to control her? It made no sense, and yet he was continuing to play with her. What would happen if she weakened? Would he lose interest? No, that couldn't be right. That would make her just another girl, and she wasn't like the others, he was sure of that..._

xxx

Buttercup still looked terrible with all the blood cleaned off and all the worst cuts and grazes bandaged up. In fact, she may have looked worse for it.

"What?" she spat, seeing Blossom looking at her. "You come to interrogate me too?"

"Well yes, but I brought some tea as a peace offering." Her sister groaned and sank back into the pillows.

"I'm sorry, I'm still all riled up from- uh..."

"It was Butch, wasn't it?" Blossom sat herself in the chair at Buttercup's desk and looked over at her sister. She saw her struggle, trying to think of a lie, could see a million different images flashing through her mind, but eventually, she gave up.

"It's useless; I know you're reading me. Yeah, okay, it was him. It's always him who gets me this badly scratched up."

"That's a little bit of an understatement considering that this is the second time this month that he's cracked your ribs." Buttercup made a weak attempt at a laugh.

"Yeah, bastard packs a mean punch, but I gave as good as I got. Didn't let my powers get in the way so much this time."

"Well, that's... good I suppose, but what happened? How did you two end up fighting?" There was another pause.

"Do... do you remember what I told you?" Buttercup finally said, looking away.

"You mean the day we had that race?"

"Yeah, about how when I get... _that way,_ sometimes all I want is for him to show up. Well... I couldn't wait for him to pick the fight. I went looking..." Blossom stared at her, opened her mouth to tell her stupid, how _reckless _she'd been, but one look at her sister's face showed how much Buttercup _hated_ herself for this.

"You... really had no other choice, did you?" Her sister shook her head slightly, staring at the ceiling, suddenly looking drained and very, very small.

"I lied to the Professor; told him Butch caught up to me on the way home. I didn't want him to know about... what's wrong with me." She suddenly shuddered violently and clutched her chest.

"Go, get out. I'm starting to heal up, and it's not going to be pretty." Blossom stood and left without a word. There was nothing more to say about this, and nothing she could say to make it better. At least, not yet.


	18. The 17th

_Here we go, chapter 17! Enjoy, and please review :)_

**17**

It was becoming very uncomfortable at the breakfast table. This seemed to be a recurring theme these days, but today it was mostly because Bubbles kept shooting her glances as she tidied her dishes away.

"You're... going to be late if you don't hurry up," she said eventually, quite timidly. Blossom had never been one to suffer insinuations that she was going to be late for _anything_, but today she just made a noncommittal noise and dropped her spoon back into her cereal.

There had to be something she could do about Buttercup. That was all she could think about. Clearly, Buttercup did not want to be... whatever exactly it was that was wrong with her, but she didn't know what to do about it. If that was the case, Blossom had to help her; it was her duty as her sister. Right? Still, part of her was repulsed by it. To her perfectly controlled way of life, it seemed completely alien, and she had no idea how she was meant to handle it. She had avoided Buttercup that morning on the way to the bathroom, and she did feel bad about it, but she didn't know what else she could do.

Eventually, she gave up on the soggy remains of her cereal and headed upstairs to finish getting ready for school. It looked like she was going to have to fly today, which was normally never necessary. Still, what was one slightly unusual occurrence compared to all the other strange things that had kept happening this month?

xxx

School was largely uneventful, although several of Blossom's teachers did comment on how distracted she seemed. Of course, she shrugged it off gracefully, but the cracks started showing at lunchtime, when Buttercup flopped down next to her and started complaining loudly about maths class.

"I still don't get why we gotta do it. Am I ever going to need trigonomic functions in real life?"

"So you're feeling better today?"

"Uhh... I guess. I'd kinda prefer if you didn't bring it up though. I don't really like talking about it..."

"Maybe you should though. It might help. Maybe we can figure out a way to make it stop. I think that-"

"Blossom! Just... don't, okay? I'll deal with it myself, my way."

That was the end of the conversation. Neither one of them had anything else to say to the other, and while the atmosphere wasn't hostile, it was certainly very uncomfortable. So much so that Bubbles, when she arrived, turned around and walked off to sit with a group of her friends instead.

xxx

When she reached the music room at the end of the day, she felt exhausted. She barely even registered Brick standing shuffling music next to the piano; she just wandered in, sat down her bag and case and all but fell into a chair.

"Uh, wow. Someone miss their coffee this morning? You look dead." She shot him as best a withering look as she could muster before groaning and running a hand through her hair.

"Let's get this over with quickly. I need to get home and go to bed I think."

"Yeah, no kidding." He walked over and handed her a set of sheet music. She glanced over it and made a noise that was almost approving. It was fairly simple, but it was classical and she knew it well enough.

"No more dragons today?" He shrugged.

"Clearly Puff's true depth was beyond you, so I figured we'd go with something easier. Can't expect miracles with these materials."

Normally, the insult would have had her up in arms. Today though, she only managed an annoyed frown and a short growl of irritation. If she'd been in any state to realise it, she'd have been happy to note that this reaction actually seemed to rattle Brick's cocky composure.

"You know what, let's skip it." Blossom looked up.

"Skip it? What do you mean?"

"I mean you're too tired for me to even tease you right and I can't be bothered today anyway. Butch came home all beat up last night and tore half the place down. Gonna take me hours to sort out when I get back; I'm betting Boomer hasn't done a damn thing about it." He stretched and stepped over to look out of one of the windows. Blossom almost blurted out the fact that Buttercup had come home in a similar state, but she bit it back. However, Brick had turned and seen her open her mouth.

"I already figured it was your sister behind it. No one beats Butch up that badly except her, and no one gets him madder either. I'm guessing she was in bad shape too though, considering the mood he was in last night." He turned back to stare out of the window before speaking again.

"I bet you think you've got it hard with your psycho sister, huh? Lemme tell ya, Butch is way worse when he gets going." Blossom wondered about that, but then remembered what little she'd managed to read of Butch's thoughts the night of the fountain ceremony and shuddered. She could believe it. All too easily.

"You probably shouldn't tell me this you know. If I know the weak link, beating you gets that little bit easier." He gave a smug little laugh.

"I figure you worked out the 'weak link' _years_ ago, and I'm betting you've also figured out that he's still not what you'd call weak. Then again, I'm not sure which one's worse; Boomer barely gets off his ass to do anything these days and Butch goes totally batshit the minute anyone mentions crime. Or your sister." He sighed. "Siblings; whatcha gonna do with 'em?"

There was a brief silence while Blossom got her things back together and pulled herself into an upright position.

"Well," she said, a little unsure of what she was meant to say in this situation. "I guess I'll see you on Monday."

"Yeah. Oh hey, I'll walk you to the gate. Just the gate today, I swear." She narrowed her eyes at him, but she was too tired to argue, and so acquiesced.

Strangely, he was still being less than irritating. In fact, other than the brief slanging match they'd had in geography that morning and the couple of jabs he'd taken at her in the music room, he was being... well, perfectly civil.

"Is this a new approach then? Be nice to me so I see that you're a good guy after all and swoon into your arms?" He opened his mouth, paused, and then carried on.

"Would that work?"

"No."

"Damn. In any case, no, that's not it. You're just no good to poke fun at when you're all moody like this. I like the Blossom with the fiery temper, not the mopey one." He pulled out a packet of cigarettes and lit one up as they left the school grounds, catching her eye as he did.

"Filthy habit, I know," he said lightly, exhaling the words along with a cloud of smoke. "I swiped 'em off Boomer this morning. Normally, I wouldn't touch the things, but just the thought of going home and clearing up Butch's mess gives me a nicotine craving."

"What makes you think I care?"

"You don't, but hey, it's conversation."

There was an awkward silence as Blossom tried to think of an excuse to get out of the conversation. But then again, why was he still walking with her when he said he'd leave her at the gate? On second thought, that was a silly question.

"I'm going to fly from here. I'll see you on Monday." As she turned to leave, she snatched the cigarette from his mouth, dropped it and ground it under her heel as she took off.

xxx

She could hear the television blaring as she entered the front hall; some soap opera from the sound of some woman screeching her lines like a harpy with laryngitis. As she made her way through to the living room, she found Buttercup reading a magazine with Bubbles perched on the arm of the sofa behind her playing with her hair.

"I still don't know why you don't grow it out. You'd look great with long hair."

"You're annoying."

"And you're mean! Hey, Blossom, wouldn't she look great with longer hair? I'm right, aren't I?" Blossom shrugged helplessly. To be honest, she couldn't see Buttercup with anything longer than her usual shoulder length black mop.

"I think I'll put the kettle on," she said instead. "Want something?" Both sisters put in requests, and Blossom quickly left them to it. It was nice seeing them acting so normal, but Blossom still couldn't shake that sick feeling when she looked at Buttercup. How _could_ she act normal after what she'd done? It made no sense to her. She was shaken out of her thoughts as the kettle clicked off the boil beside her, and she set about making tea (and a coffee for Buttercup). As she started spooning sugar into Bubbles' mug, the Professor appeared, absently shuffling some papers and looking even more tired than normal.

"Ah, Blossom, you couldn't make up another coffee while you're there, could you please?" he asked, sinking into a chair and haphazardly spreading out his notes. Blossom instantly pulled out another mug from the cupboard and made his coffee without a word. He thanked her as she put it down next to him, and then stopped her before she left to take her sisters their drinks.

"How are things? With your new powers, I mean. Have things settled down?" Blossom considered the question.

"More or less. Bubbles still has trouble stopping herself from taking on other people's features sometimes, but other than that, we seem to be back to normal." He nodded, then rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"And Buttercup?"

"Wh-what about her?" She couldn't stop the stutter, and she wanted to hit herself for it. The Professor wasn't meant to be worried about them; they were supposed to be able to handle each other so he could concentrate on his work.

"She's... healed alright? No problems?" It was clearly not the question he wanted to ask, but she understood the feeling of not wanting the answer to the _other_ question.

"She's fine. Completely healed."

"That's good." He shifted the papers into a loose pile before standing and picking up his coffee mug.

"I'll be in the lab if you need me. And remember, if you ever need any help with... anything, I'm never too busy." Blossom nearly cracked after that one. Nearly, but not quite.

"I know, don't worry." He smiled, even though his eyes still looked worried, and as he left, he planted a quick kiss on the top of her head. It was a small gesture, but from him, it was one that meant a lot.

"Don't work too hard," she said quietly, watching him head out and towards the stairs down to the labs. She took out the mugs to her sisters, and after a moment's deliberation, lowered herself into the seat next to Buttercup, sipping her tea and joining in with the idle chatter about TV and magazines and hairstyles. Whatever was wrong with Buttercup, she reasoned, she would find the answer in time. There was no rush, and there was no need to stop treating her as her sister. She still was, and she always would be.

xxx

It was much later when the Professor emerged from the lab for a late night coffee break. And as he made his way to the kitchen, he found the TV still on and all three girls huddled together, fast asleep. He considered moving them to their rooms, but somehow the fact that even though they had grown apart in so many ways, they could still retain some habits from when they were little stopped him. Buttercup sprawled out with Bubbles' head resting on her legs and Blossom propped up on her shoulder; it was such a simplistic, and in some ways quite silly, scene, but just knowing that they were all there, that they were all _safe_ was enough. He absently ruffled Buttercup's hair as he passed, and she muttered something in her sleep. Something that he tried to ignore.


	19. The 18th

_Ta-daaaaa~ Enjoy :)_

**18**

Buttercup had a basketball game that morning and was out of the house by eight, citing a last-minute practice session as her reason for being awake so unusually early. To Blossom's surprise, the Professor was also up and about when she came down to the kitchen for her breakfast. However, he only managed a sleepy mumble of 'good morning,' before dozing off over the huge stack of papers he must have come up with overnight. Bubbles came downstairs soon after, yawning.

"Aren't you going to the game today?" Blossom asked, stirring her tea. Bubbles stretched and shook her head.

"No, we don't have any more game routines for this season. Coach wants us to work on routines for New York; there are about five of us who got selected to go."

"I see. I was going to go."

"Really?" Blossom nodded. She wanted to go and make sure that Buttercup was alright. Despite the fact that she had been acting normally last night, she was notoriously bad for blowing up at the wrong moments when something was wrong. It was probably the cause of the fiasco on Valentine's day.

"I might come with you then. I think Robin's going anyway, and there was something I wanted to ask her about our drama assignment."

xxx

There wasn't a big turn-out at the game, but Blossom chalked it up to the weather improving slightly. That said, she still ended up squeezed in between Bubbles and a woman who, for all that she didn't seem to be particularly overweight, seemed to take up all available space and keep pushing for more.

"Are you worried about something?" Bubbles asked, leaning over to peer intently into her sister's face. Blossom nodded absently, staring onto the court where Buttercup and the team were stretching out before the game. Then she realised what Bubbles had actually asked, and had to spend the next few minutes assuring her that no, she was _not_ worried, thank you Bubbles.

The game started after about ten minutes of one of the sports teachers droning on about the upcoming tournament, with some mention of the members of the cheerleading squad being selected for the New York try-outs. Bubbles seemed excited about it, but Blossom barely heard a word. Still, the teams took their places and Buttercup proceeded to score within the first five minutes. And then again, and again. Blossom unconsciously gripped the edges of her seat. She could see what was happening, and it wasn't looking good. Apart from Buttercup being overly aggressive in her play, she was evidently forgetting to keep her powers in check, and it was spilling over to the other players. Two of the boys started arguing after a minor collision, and it escalated into a full-on brawl while they all watched. Meanwhile, Buttercup found herself confronted with two others who seemed insistent that she was _not_ taking the ball any further. Violently insistent.

"Oh no. Come on, we need to do something." Unfortunately, Blossom found herself stuck, as the woman on the other side from Bubbles was apparently related to one of the boys on the court, and was on her feet and yelling at him to get a grip.

"Excuse me, ma'am, could I..." But the woman was ignoring her and kept on yelling. To make matters worse, Buttercup was starting to affect more and more people, and it seemed that she was now affecting females as well. More and more people were getting to their feet, shouting, pushing and shoving each other as fights started breaking out all over the stands. Buttercup had been backed up into a corner of the court, unsure of what to do. It would be easy for her to get herself out of it, but at the same time, it would also be easy to kill someone accidentally. Her confusion was spilling over as well, adding to the growing furore, and Blossom grabbed hold of Bubbles' hand and dragged her into the air, quickly flying over to where their sister stood. They landed in front of her, facing out and ready to push back if any of the players (or spectators, since a few had spilled onto the court by now) tried to get too close.

"Buttercup, you have to calm down."

"I _am_ calm. I _was_ calm."

"I don't have time to argue with you Buttercup. You have to focus. You can stop this." Buttercup bit her lip and glared at her sister, but then took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Blossom felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, felt an acute surge of annoyance that she tried to push aside. Apparently Buttercup couldn't affect them as easily, but could still cause that nagging little suggestion in the back of their mind. But it was fading now. People started to calm down. The shouting stopped, and people looked at each other bemusedly, muttering vague apologies for things they only really half-remembered doing.

"I'm hitting the showers," Buttercup muttered, pushing past her sisters and heading for the door. Blossom made a move to follow her, but Bubbles caught her arm.

"It's better if we leave her for a while." Blossom, still worried that Buttercup might go off the deep-end again, hesitated and then eventually gave in. Just then, Robin came running over, evidently shaken by what had just happened. Bubbles gave her sister one last warning glance and then moved to comfort their friend.

xxx

Ultimately, the game ended up cancelled, and Blossom wandered along to the changing rooms, waiting outside until Buttercup emerged. Bubbles had said that she was going to Robin's for a little while, but she had warned Blossom not to push their sister too hard on what had happened.

Eventually, Buttercup appeared, hair damp and hanging in straggles around her face.

"I don't want to talk about it," she snapped immediately. Blossom simply held her hands up in surrender.

"Then we won't. Are you alright though?" Buttercup paused, and then nodded. The pair exited the school in silence, until Buttercup made a sharp noise of alarm and froze.

"Buttercup, what is...? Oh no..."

There, leaning beside the school gates, feral grin and all, was Butch. And he was staring directly at Buttercup. Blossom automatically took a step in front of her sister, tensing up. Of course, part of her knew it was useless; Buttercup was the only one of them strong enough to take Butch in a fight. Blossom wouldn't have stood a chance against him, but she didn't know what else to do at this point. Buttercup made a strangled sort of noise behind her, gripping her arm and trying to tug her back.

"Are you _crazy_?" she hissed. "He's here for _me_, not you."

"But I can't let you-"

"You have to." She shook her head. "He won't stop until he gets what he came for. Just like that night at the park. Just like Thursday night." Blossom looked at her sister helplessly. There was that feeling again; that this was all spiralling beyond her control and nothing she could do was ever going to make it right again. Buttercup could evidently sense her sister's distress, but she could shake her head again, let go of her sister's arm and step forward to face him. Except that help had arrived, from the most unlikely source.

Brick had appeared at Butch's side, and from the look on Butch's face, had just said something that he really didn't like. Blossom watched as Brick's gestures and expression became more insistent, and eventually, Butch snapped and swung a punch at his brother. What happened directly after was too quick for the eye to see, but the result was Butch ending up on the ground gasping for breath. Blossom guessed a swift strike to the throat as the cause.

Brick hauled his brother roughly to his feet, shot a quick glance and nod over to the two girls, and then took off with Butch in tow. Buttercup gaped slightly, before turning to Blossom.

"What... what just happened? Did your boyfriend just-"

"He is _not_ my boyfriend Buttercup. Come on, let's go home already."

xxx

Aside from making dinner that night, Buttercup stayed locked in her room. However, after Blossom had explained to Bubbles and the Professor what had happened, they had all decided that it was best just to leave her that way. Blossom was shut up in her own room as well, half-heartedly making her way through the maths homework that was due for Monday. She had thought that working on something might take her mind off the whole debacle, but it wasn't working. Finally, she closed over her book and laid her head down on it, defeated.

After a few minutes, she heard a tapping noise. Automatically looking at the door, she suddenly registered that it was coming from the window. Groaning inwardly, she drew back the curtains and found, to her dismay, that Brick was indeed outside her window.

However, for some reason, she opened the window for him. Evidently, this surprised him as much as it surprised her, since he just sort of hovered uselessly for a moment staring at the window as though he was worried she was tricking him.

"Are you coming in or not?" she eventually snapped, surprising them both further. "It's cold with the window open."

Things became very awkward for the next few minutes. Brick had perched himself gingerly on the window seat, while Blossom had retreated to the far side of the room after closing the window behind him. She refused to sit down, instead pacing restlessly.

"I don't even know why I let you in here," she said irritably. "I should have just let you stay out there like I usually do."

"Well, evidently something's bugging you. Other than me, I mean."

"Well, yes, but why would something bugging me lead to me letting you into my room?" She shouldn't even have let him into the house, never mind her _bedroom_. For one thing, she wouldn't put it past Buttercup to sense his presence from down the hall.

"Because talking to your sisters hasn't helped, and you know that if you talk to me, you can still turn around and assume I'm lying to you, therefore enforcing your own ideas with your denial of mine." Blossom stopped pacing and started at him.

"Just putting it out there," he said mildly.

"But... That... Since when do you even talk like that?"

There was silence for another minute or so while he smirked at her and she glared back. And then she gave up and sank into her desk chair.

"Why did you stop your brother earlier?" she asked quietly. His smug demeanour slipped a little.

"Cos I could see what you were doing. You realise that was stupid, right? I know Little Miss Hothead can take him, but he could have killed you."

"I don't need you to fight my battles for me."

"And your sister doesn't need you to fight hers. I stopped Butch today because I didn't want you to get hurt. I wouldn't have done it if it was just her there. And before you ask, I followed him to the game today; I wasn't stalking you." She knew from the look in his eye that, for once, he was actually serious about this.

"I guess I'm supposed to be grateful."

"It would be nice." She almost flinched at the tone.

"Why are you acting as though we're friends? I have no reason to even be talking to you as civilly as this, never mind be grateful about something like that."

"And what about the music lessons you asked for?"

Blossom stopped, floundered for a second, and then wondered why he was able to be making these arguments. And _win_.

"Okay, I'm... I'm _sorry_. There, are you happy now? Ugh, I can't believe that you, of all people, are making me apologise for something. _Nothing_ makes sense anymore." She turned her back on him and silently fumed at the wall. However, she peeked back over her shoulder when she heard him move. He'd stood up, and was reaching for the catch on the window.

"Look, I know you're worried about your screwy sister and how she's gonna get herself killed one day. Don't. There's nothing you can do about it, and it's not your fault. It never will be. One thing I can tell you though; Butch won't be the one to do her in. He needs her. She's the only one who interests him. Just... back off her, okay? They both have their issues. There's nothing we can do about it." Blossom turned to look at him fully.

"Why is it that you can figure this out and not me? I thought... I'm supposed to be the smart one. I'm supposed to-"

And while she was grasping for the words, she never noticed him making his way over and suddenly being very, very uncomfortably close.

"Stop it Bloss. Let it go. You don't have to worry about it. Any of it." She stared up at him.

"I'd appreciate it," she said firmly. "If you'd back off just a-"

The kiss on the cheek stopped her. In fact, the kiss on the cheek did a lot of things. It stopped, stunned, shocked and surprised her. And it landed Brick with a bruised jaw and a scorch mark on his chest. It also nearly ended in a broken window, but thankfully Brick was a good enough escape artist to manage to open it and jump out quick enough to avoid her throwing him through it.

She'd get him for that on Monday. Oh yes, she would...


	20. The 19th

**19**

For all that Bubbles was normally the sweet and kind one of the three sisters, it had become a well-established fact in their teenage years that anyone who dared disturb her precious Sunday morning lie-in was in for pain. No matter how good their reasoning may be.

So when Blossom tentatively peeked around her sister's bedroom door, she wondered for possibly the hundredth time what the heck she was doing, and why she was doing it _now_. But it had seemed important when it had woken her up; important enough to push her out of bed and down the hall to her sister's room. But looking at Bubbles now, sleep-masked and slumbering peacefully, was enough to make her wonder if this was actually a terrible idea and if she should just go back to bed and wait until it was less dangerous.

Unfortunately, she was who she was, and was therefore too stubborn to admit that she _had_ bad ideas.

"Bubbles?" she tried, still staying by the door. Nothing. She tried again, slightly louder. There was movement underneath the duvet and Bubbles made a slight noise of sleepy annoyance.

"Bubbles? Can I talk to you? I have a favour I wanted to-" The end of the sentence was abruptly cut off as Octi suddenly flew across the room and smacked her square in the face, surprisingly hard for a stuffed toy. Without Bubbles actually visibly moving.

"Bubbles, this is really important, otherwise I swear I wouldn't be trying to disturb your lie-in." Octi was followed swiftly by a stuffed rabbit and a pillow. This wasn't working.

"I need you to come shopping with me!" Blossom eventually blurted, after two more attempts were met with other stuffed projectiles and an alarm clock which just barely missed its mark. There was a noise of irritation followed by one of sluggish confusion.

"Shopping?" Bubbles slurred slightly, not actually bothering to raise her head from the pillow. However, her interest had been caught by the magic word.

"Yes. I... well, I need new clothes, but you know me, I always go for such boring stuff and it doesn't really suit me all that well..." The words left a bad taste in Blossom's mouth; she'd always thought that she dressed rather nicely; but she knew that Bubbles would have to be downright ill to turn down the chance for a retail therapy makeover session. And she was right. Bubbles slid her sleep-mask up and pushed herself into a sitting position.

"Does it have to be so early?" she asked, pouting slightly. "I would have helped you later. Still... I _do_ need new clothes for New York..." There was a pause, and then Bubbles grinned brightly, suddenly awake.

"Give me an hour and then we can go!"

xxx

"So what's with the sudden image-change anyway?" Bubbles asked, staring at Blossom with wide blue eyes over her iced latte. Blossom shrugged and hurriedly took a mouthful of her own drink so she didn't have to talk. As she did, her eyes drifted over the small mountain of shopping bags they had acquired. Despite her love of all things designer, Bubbles really knew how to bargain hunt, and as a result, they'd ended up with a lot more clothes than Blossom would have thought possible with the amount of money she had.

That said, the clothes were a lot less substantial than Blossom was used to. Any skirts she had previously possessed had all been at least knee length, but she was now the proud owner of two miniskirts, and a couple of short tunic-style dresses that Bubbles had practically threatened her into. Added to that was the collection of tights, belts, hair accessories and bunch of other clothes that Bubbles had piled into her arms for 'layering purposes,' whatever that was supposed to mean.

To be honest, the whole experience had just left her feeling mildly confused. Yes, all of these clothes were very pretty and everything, but they didn't seem very practical, and until Bubbles had started throwing things at her, she had simply stood in the shops staring blankly at all of these clothes that she just could not see herself in.

"Seriously, why?" Bubbles was apparently not going to be distracted from this, so Blossom took another quick sip, swallowed and decided that she might as well be a little bit honest.

"It's this whole mess with Brick," she said simply, watching Bubbles closely to gauge her reaction. For her part, Bubbles simply frowned a little and tilted her head to the side.

"But, I thought you were trying to put him off. Won't this kind of make things worse?" Blossom shook her head.

"He's relying on me to stay predictable. He thinks that he'll win me over eventually if he keeps pushing all the same buttons enough times. If I make a change, it should throw him off long enough for me to figure out how to put a permanent stop to this." Bubbles' frown became slightly deeper.

"I don't get it." Blossom just shook her head and tried to shrug the whole thing off. It was not one of her better plans. In fact, she should have discounted it straight off the bat when it had come to her at six in the morning when she wasn't exactly awake. It had made her want to disturb Bubbles' sleep, it was that bad of a plan.

Still, here she was with a pile of new clothes and a half-baked idea that was probably very unlikely to work. At least Bubbles seemed happy.

"Bubbles," she said absently after a few minutes, staring across the food court. "Are my plans really that bad?" Bubbles paused in mid-bite of her sandwich.

"Your plans? Not usually. I mean, most of them are really good, and they mean we get stuff sorted out quicker when there's trouble."

"I'm getting a 'but' there." Her sister chewed her lip for a second.

"Promise you won't get mad if I say?" Blossom blinked at the question; was she really so aggressive when questioned?

"I won't, I promise."

"Well, it's just that you sometimes _over_ plan and everything gets too complicated and me and Buttercup aren't really sure what we're meant to be doing, and then there's the fact that you seem to spend every spare minute you've got locked in your room making _more_ plans and we don't see you so much..." Bubbles trailed off and took a tiny bite out of her food, while Blossom processed the information.

"Am I... really like that?" Her sister made a slight flailing movement and tried to mentally backtrack in a way that made Blossom's head spin.

"No, you're not! Well, I mean, you _were_ but you're much better _now_, like lately. You hang out with us more and you talk more and-"

"It's okay Bubbles, I don't really mind. I was just wondering." Bubbles gave a small squeak and looked down at her food, and Blossom caught a snatch of embarrassed mental mumbling about not being so mean to her sister.

Thinking it best not to comment on the blonde's thoughts, Blossom instead took a mouthful of her pasta salad and chewed thoughtfully. While she did, Bubbles made a quiet 'um' noise, and Blossom looked at her expectantly.

"Umm... I was just thinking. About how I said you've been getting better lately? Well, it's been ever since Brick showed up and started doing... whatever he's doing." Blossom nearly dropped her fork.

"You think _he_ has something to do with it?" Bubbles paled and didn't answer, and Blossom reprimanded herself for her tone. She was still wound up after last night, and the mention of his name was enough to result in that knee-jerk reaction. She apologised quickly and tried to change the subject back to the boots Bubbles had been trying to get her to buy earlier. It wasn't an area she was entirely comfortable in, but it was a heck of a lot more comfortable than the subject of _him_.

xxx

Okay, she had to admit that there was some merit in the skirts.

After trying on the various different bits of clothing in the various combinations that Bubbles had suggested, she finally settled on an outfit for the next day, changed into her pyjamas and set out the clothes ready to be put on tomorrow.

Collapsing on to her bed, she suddenly realised how tired she was. The two of them hadn't got back to the house until about five, and when they did get back, Buttercup had immediately ordered either one or both of them to go get her some onions so she could get started on dinner.

But at least now she could relax for a little bit. Pulling over the latest in her pile of books, she flipped it open and started reading.

Half an hour and halfway through the book later, she slammed it closed and sat it down. Then she stared at the wall for a little while.

"This is getting ridiculous; will you just _stop it_?" she muttered to herself. There was a couple more minutes spent staring at the wall until she eventually got up and headed downstairs to make herself a cup of tea.

Buttercup was sat at the kitchen table munching her way through a pile of toast as she grumbled over what looked to be chemistry homework. As Blossom pottered around with teabags and mugs while waiting for the kettle to boil, she heard her sister set her pen down and clear her throat.

"Come on, spill it already, will you? You're making me edgy." Blossom grimaced, having forgotten that of course Buttercup would notice immediately that something was wrong. So much for just grabbing her tea and escaping back to her room.

"It's... nothing. Just something stupid; I shouldn't even really be worrying about it." Buttercup arched an eyebrow and said nothing. She held out until the kettle clicked off and she'd poured water into her mug, but eventually, Blossom buckled.

"Okay, it was this stupid book I was reading; just some silly romance where a girl falls for a guy who is clearly all wrong for her and she doesn't even _like_ him anyway, but they're still going to end up together and it's just... Just..." She realised the teaspoon she was holding was now a twisted strip of metal rather than a utensil and that she had managed to lose control of her temper _again_. Over something this trivial. Over something this... _stupid_.

"So... this is about Brick, right?"

"No! I... don't know. Maybe."

"But you don't like him that way, right?"

"I don't like him _at all_."

"So what's the problem?" Blossom blinked. What w_as_ the problem?

Buttercup sighed, finished the last of her toast and stood up, grabbing her homework as she turned to leave.

"Look, either learn to relax or figure out exactly what you wanna do about this, okay? You're just turning into one big ball of stress right now, and it's going to go badly. Take it from someone who knows."

"Buttercup?" Her sister looked back over her shoulder. "Are things... really okay? Because I'm not sure that I know any more."

There was silence for a few moments, and Blossom thought she saw a brief flicker of what almost looked like pain cross her sister's face.

"Don't ask me Bloss. Things have been changing so fast, and after what happened yesterday I don't have a freaking clue what's going on and Butch is-" She stopped, swore quietly under her breath.

"Butch?" Blossom asked. If she'd taken a second to think about it, she wouldn't have asked, but it had spilled out of her mouth immediately.

"It's nothing. I'll deal with it. You worry about Brick." She left quickly after that, not leaving Blossom any time to make a response.

_I guess things are getting worse before they get any better..._


	21. The 20th

**20**

Okay, maybe the skirt had been a bad idea.

She had only been in school for half an hour before Blossom was feeling supremely uncomfortable. Not because of the skirt itself; it was actually strangely comfortable; but because some of the thoughts being directed her way by her male classmates were... well.

"I thought that was the _point_," Bubbles said when she complained about it in English. "Besides, it's not like it's _that_ much shorter than any other skirts you wear; it just sits above your knees for once, and you're wearing tights anyway. People are probably just noticing the difference, like you wanted."

"Well, I didn't want _this_," Blossom hissed back. "I did _not _need to know Michael Long's opinions on my legs, or any other areas of my lower body for that matter. Honestly, some of that was just _vulgar_. It's only a skirt for goodness' sake." Bubbles suppressed a giggle and was rewarded with a glare.

"Oh, lighten up already. It's not like it's a bad thing, is it? Anyway, what does Brick think about it?" Blossom sighed.

"I don't know. He did look at me strangely when I walked into class earlier, but he didn't say anything."

"But what was he _thinking_?"

"I told you, I don't know. I... I can't read his thoughts. Ever since that night at the park, all I get when I try is static." Bubbles blinked.

"Well that doesn't make sense. Are you sure you aren't just... I dunno, blocking it out?" Before Blossom could reply, the teacher walked in and started the lesson. However, that last thought sat with Blossom for a little while.

xxx

"_Dude, did you _see_ Blossom today?"_

"_Oh man, I know. I mean I always thought she was hot, but... wow."_

_He could feel himself grinding his teeth as he listened to them all. He wanted to tell them just to shut up, not to talk about her that way. Well, actually he wanted to smash all their teeth in, but that would be messy. And it wouldn't look good when he 'accidentally' smashed their entire face in the process. And s_he_ wouldn't like it._

_So he sat and tried to keep his violent impulses at bay. All for _her._ All of this just for _her.

_And he still didn't really know _why_._

xxx

When lunchtime finally rolled around, Blossom was seriously considering just going home and putting on a pair of jeans. Or maybe just one of her old skirts. Just _anything_ that wasn't this skirt because she was utterly sick of the attention it was getting her. This didn't seem to happen to any other girl that wore these kinds of things. Bubbles wore this kind of outfit all the time, and she _loved_ the attention.

Electing to skip lunch and avoid contact with anyone else for a little while, she settled down in a secluded corner of the library, next to one of the radiators. It was an ancient one that hadn't been bled in a while, but she found the soft gurgling noises that it made to be quite comforting. Savouring the peace and quiet, she idly flipped through her history textbook, scanning several pages.

"You hiding here too?" She almost jumped out of her skin at the sound of his voice.

"Brick! For goodness' sake, don't scare me like that!" Sinking back into her seat, she subconsciously arranged her legs so that they were well hidden under the table. "What do you want?"

"Nothing. Just trying to get away from people."

"Well I'm people, so I suppose you'll be leaving me alone now." No such luck; he was already sitting down.

"You had lunch?" She shook her head slightly, trying to divert her attention back to her textbook and away from him. However, this failed when he tossed a pack of sandwiches over at her and tore open a packet of crisps for himself. "You're okay with tuna, right?"

Given the confused state her mind had flung itself into at the offering, the only vocal response she was going to be able to give was something along the lines of '_bluh?_' so she settled for pushing the sandwiches back towards him.

"Look, just eat them, will you? I don't even like tuna that much; it was just all that was left in the lunch hall when I got there." He didn't look at her when he said it, instead staring off into a far corner. Hesitating, she eventually gave into the quiet demands of her stomach, which suddenly _really_ liked the idea of a tuna sandwich.

They ate in silence, Blossom half-heartedly scanning her textbook. However, as much as she wanted to study, her mind kept straying to the nagging question of 'w_hat does he think of the skirt?_' He had barely looked at her once the entire time he'd been sat down across from her, and his face was almost perfectly blank as he flipped through the book he'd brought.

The nagging insistence of the question in her mind was troubling. She wasn't entirely sure why it was so important. Sure, this, admittedly poorly conceived, plan had been in order to throw him off, but part of her worried that it was also about making him take some kind of notice. Except that he had already taken that kind of notice and she was trying to get him to _stop._

"You still want to practice today?" His voice seemed somehow strained, and he still wasn't looking at her.

"I... Oh, no, I can't. I left my violin at home, sorry." There was another long, awkward silence. Blossom read the same sentence ten times, and didn't take it in at all. What Bubbles had said earlier resurfaced in her thoughts; what if she really _was _able to hear what he was thinking. What if she just didn't w_ant_ to?

Carefully keeping her eyes glued to her book, she tentatively took down the mental wall she'd thrown up the second he'd spoken to her. At first, all she heard was the usual static, although it wasn't as bad as before. It faded in and out as she tried to concentrate, and eventually, she began picking up words. It was difficult to hear any of it; it was like trying to tune an old radio with no real signal, and eventually, she had to give up.

She had, however, picked up the word 'skirt.'

xxx

When lunch had ended, he'd got up and left without a word, despite the fact that they had chemistry together for their next class. As much as she was kicking herself for it, she was beginning to worry.

"Are... are you alright Brick?" He looked up from the acid he was measuring out and gave her an incredulous look from behind his goggles.

"Could it be... you really _care_?" There it was, that joking tone she'd come to expect. She rolled her eyes and grabbed the beaker from him.

"Clearly I don't have to; you're obviously fine." He gave a lopsided smirk and muttered a brief _'I knew you cared'_ that she was sure was purely to make her grumble at him under her breath.

xxx

"Hey, Blossom?" It was the end of the day. All she'd needed to do was grab her books and get home before this stupid skirt caused her any more problems. She'd spent all of chemistry and then French listening to several of her male classmates mentally drooling over her legs. Yes, her legs were very nice; she just really did not understand the fascination with them.

But of course, Brick had to turn up at her locker. Of course.

"What is it?" To her surprise, it came out without the usual edge of annoyance.

"Were you... trying to impress someone today?" She blinked at him. He stared at the far wall.

"The skirt," he added, still not looking at her. When she still remained silent, he shifted his weight and made an irritated motion with his hand.

"Look, if there's someone you like and you're trying to catch their eye, that's fine. I... I'll deal with that, but just... Don't do it like this." Blossom finally clicked to what he was trying to say.

"You think I have a crush on someone? That's why I dressed like this?"

"Not like you even have to." She wasn't entirely sure that he was replying and not just talking to himself. At that moment, she realised that she had a potential way out. If she told Brick that there was someone else, maybe he would leave her alone. Of course, she didn't have anyone in mind, but he didn't need to know that.

But... when he said he'd deal with that situation, what did that mean? Well, she already knew the answer to that. He'd deal with it the same way he dealt with Butch that night in the park, and she could never risk that.

"No, that's not why. I just... wanted to try something new. A girl doesn't need to have a boy in mind to wear nice clothes you know." He finally looked up at her, but she carefully made sure that her gaze was fixed on her hands as she shuffled books around in her locker.

"Huh," he said, his tone a little lighter. "Fair enough." He broke out that lopsided smile again and spun on his heel. "See you tomorrow Red," he said, waving back over his shoulder. "Oh yeah, meant to say: _great_ legs."

xxx

"Well you know what you have to do, don't you?" Bubbles was pointing a spoon at her in a very authoritative manner. "You have to friend-zone him."

"I have to _what?_" Blossom looked to her other sister for aid, but Buttercup only nodded sagely at Bubbles' advice and shoveled another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.

"It's the only way he's ever going to give up," Bubbles continued, now waving the spoon around to add more emphasis.

"Bubbles, in case you hadn't realised, that course of action would involve me being _friends_ with him."

"You kind of are already," Buttercup pointed out. "Half the time I've seen you talking to him, you look like you're enjoying it more than when you talk to anyone else."

"Well I can assure you that that is _not_ the case. He just... aggravates me. Pushes my buttons. That's all." Her sisters exchanged a look.

"The music lessons? That you're taking by choice?"

"That's a matter of pride." This was getting uncomfortable now. They were exchanging more looks.

"Blossom, look, we're not judging you here. Really," Bubbles said gently.

"Yeah," Buttercup mumbled. "I mean, it's not like I can say anything anyway."

"And if this gets him off your back in the long run, maybe it'd be for the best, you know?"

Blossom looked at her two sisters, wondering if she should be feeling slightly betrayed or grateful for their advice. Instead, she just felt more confused than ever.

xxx

It was half ten when he showed up, and she hesitated for a minute before opening the window, thinking about what her sisters had said.

"What is it?" she asked, as he perched on the windowsill.

"Thought you might still want that music lesson. Got your violin handy? I figured we could go use the bandstand in the park." He held his hands up when she opened her mouth to accuse him of something. "No funny business; just thought you might not want to disturb everyone."

Eventually, she had agreed, although now that she was actually standing there, she was regretting it. For all that the weather was slightly warmer, it was still freezing, and she could barely feel her fingers. Not exactly helpful for playing the violin.

"This isn't working. I can't play like this." He nodded thoughtfully.

"You're probably right. Shoulda thought of that; sorry." There was silence as she packed her instrument away, and they set off back across the park in silence. Blossom realised that she could be home in the half the time if she bothered to fly, but for some reason, she was quite happy to walk, even if meant spending more time with him.

Maybe because it meant spending more time with him.

Just... not _that_ way.


	22. The 21st

**21**

The school was on fire. It was Buttercup's fault.

Okay, not _entirely_ Buttercup's fault. Butch had a large hand in it as well. Blossom had seen him circling the science block briefly before Buttercup had come crashing out a window and tackled him face first into the football field. There was a smouldering crater there now, and there had been no sign of either of them since the library had caught fire two minutes later.

"Okay everyone, just keep moving, no need to panic. Bubbles!" As she ushered everyone out, she caught sight of her blonde sister hurrying past, chivvying along Robin and a few other people from whatever class she had just been in. Several teachers hurried past as well, trying to keep order, and more or less succeeding.

"Blossom, what's happening?" Despite the fact that she seemed to have everyone else under control, Bubbles was obviously extremely anxious. Not panicking; she'd been in too many of these situations to be panicking over something like this; but she did have a tendency to become a big ball of nervous energy until she knew exactly what she was doing.

"I don't know. Butch turned up and Buttercup reacted."

"Do we go after her? I haven't seen her-"

"No, let's just get everyone out of here first. As long as the two of them are around here, it isn't safe. I just hope she has the sense to lead him away from the city."

As it happened, she evidently didn't. Several of the students started screaming as Buttercup suddenly came crashing through the front wall of the building, skidding painfully across the tarmac towards her sisters. Bubbles made a wordless noise of alarm and immediately ran towards her, but stopped short when Brick appeared in front of her, throwing out an arm to block her way.

"Don't. Do what Blossom says; get everyone out of here. Now."

"But-"

"Do what he says Bubbles." Blossom was almost surprised to hear herself say it, but Brick's tone told her that he knew that this was about to get _very_ ugly. Buttercup had already pulled herself back to her feet and she looked _livid_, to the point that when Blossom caught a look at her expression, she actually felt scared of her. But before she could say anything, her sister was already gone.

Trying to bury her reservations for the moment, Blossom carried on helping to get students through the front gates. When everyone was finally clear, she searched for Bubbles, who was already coming over to meet her.

"Do you know where they are?" Bubbles shook her head.

"The smoke's getting too thick back there, I can't see anything." At that moment, Brick touched down next to them.

"Dammit, the emergency services can't get in to put the fire out unless we get them out of here. And even if we do get the fire put out, they're going to tear the building apart at this rate."

"Blossom, what do we do?" Bubbles' eyes had changed to green in her worry over her sister, and Blossom could feel a twisting knot of anxiety in her stomach. This was bad. The school was wrecked as it was and it was only going to get worse. And who knew what state Buttercup would be in at the end of this.

"Wait... Wait, I have an idea. Bubbles, can you change into Buttercup?" Her sister blinked at her.

"Huh? I... I think so, but why?"

"Just do it. Now." Still confused, Bubbles closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment. With one of those little shivers, a second Buttercup shimmered into existence, much to Brick's surprise.

"What the hell?" he managed, his voice faltering a little. If it had been any other situation, Blossom would have been greatly amused.

"I'll explain later," she said, grabbing her sister's arm. "But right now, we need to stop them. Bubbles, come on!"

xxx

By the time they found them in the smoke, the library was in ruins, and neither of them looked in any better shape. Buttercup had blood all over her face, running from a cut somewhere on her scalp, and Butch was already sporting a broken nose and a lot of chest lacerations and scorches.

"That's what you get for trying to run!" Butch was yelling, his tone manic. Buttercup viciously spat a mouthful of blood to the side and pullled herself up to her full height.

"You sick bastard, I'll kill you for this. You hear me? _I'll kill you_!" Her voice was rising, her tone every bit as mad as his was. Blossom looked to Brick and Bubbles, realising that they needed to intervene _now_.

"We need a smoke screen. Brick, try and blow some more of that smoke over here. Bubbles, when we're covered, I'll grab her, and you take her place, lead Butch away. Can you add in those injuries?" Bubbles nodded, copying them without a word. Blossom winced when she saw them appear on her sister, even though these ones weren't technically real.

"Okay, be careful not to let him catch you; Buttercup's having trouble with him as it is. Are you ready?" Her sister nodded, and Brick simply left to do his part. Blossom positioned herself to swoop in and grab her sister. It was not going to be pleasant; if Buttercup was in this state, she would not appreciate being dragged out of the fight. They only had a very small window of time in which to do this before one of them did some real damage to the other, but Brick had already managed to thicken the smoke around them. Blossom could feel her eyes stinging; she needed to get them all out of here as soon as possible.

When they were finally obscured from view and Butch's swearing became punctuated with coughing fits, Blossom finally made a move. Aiming for Buttercup's position, she shot forward and slammed into her sister, grabbing her and dragging her along with her. Anticipating Buttercup's protests, she already had a hand over her sister's mouth. Behind her, she heard Butch stop yelling as Bubbles crashed into him, and hoped that she would succeed in drawing him away.

xxx

She didn't relinquish her iron grip on her sister until they were well outside of city limits, and Buttercup had been fighting against her the whole way. When she finally let go of her, she was instantly rewarded with a punch to the jaw as her sister started screaming at her.

"Why did you do that? I was fine. I was-" She fell silent as Blossom returned the punch, knocking her backwards.

"Would you _look_ at yourself?" she said, her tone icy. "Look at the state you're in." She gestured to the blood and dirt and soot stains that her sister was covered in, that her own top was stained with after carrying her all this way. Buttercup got back on her feet, rubbing her cheek.

"You should have stayed out of it. It was nothing to do with you. He's _my_ problem, I-" Blossom didn't even bother saying anything; she just hit her again, throwing her weight into it.

"You just don't _think_, do you? You never _think_. The minute you let yourself be provoked, you made this my problem. You put your own selfish pride before the safety of everyone in the school; I can't ignore that Buttercup. I can't ignore the fact that you obviously can't handle-"

"_Stop it!"_ Blossom did. She hadn't been expecting this. Another punch maybe, or just a barrage of swearing, but not this. Buttercup's voice was cracked and desperate as she spoke. "Just stop it. Stop..."

"Buttercup..."

"I know. I know I... I didn't mean for this to happen. I didn't _want_ this, I just... I couldn't stop it. When he showed up I just..." Blossom's eyes widened as she realised Buttercup was crying. Buttercup never cried; not once since she was six years old. And it was more than that. Buttercup was _terrified_.

And Blossom had no idea what to do.

"Buttercup, what happened?" Her sister shook her head, absently trying to shove blood-matted hair out of her face.

"I don't... He just, he showed up, didn't even come in or anything. I just looked up and there he was outside my class. And I thought I could ignore him, you know? I thought I had my powers under control, but then..." She shuddered, looking like she was about to be sick.

"Buttercup-"

"It's like he just crawls inside my skull or something. Every time he's around it's like he's strangling me, and I can't do anything. I just lose it. I just lose it and that's what he _wants_."

Blossom was still at a loss. This was much worse than anything she had imagined. Now, the school getting destroyed seemed completely insignificant. She didn't care about it any more. But what was she supposed to do now?

"Blossom, Buttercup! Oh my gosh, are you okay?" Bubbles still had black patches in her hair as she landed and threw herself on Buttercup, almost throttling her with the force of the hug she was giving her. Brick landed behind her, and Blossom noticed that one of the sleeves on his jacket had nearly been torn off and his hat was missing.

Leaving Bubbles to fuss over their sister, she turned to Brick, thankful that maybe here was a situation she could deal with.

"Is everything okay back there? What happened?" He shrugged, and then winced at the motion.

"The fire's out, although the building's a wreck. They found a couple of students who got hit with debris, but no one's too badly injured. Looks like the school's going to be closed for a while though. A few weeks at least." Blossom frowned. The city was straining for money anyway, fancy donated fountains notwithstanding. Fixing the school might take a lot longer than a few weeks if the funding wasn't available.

"Bubbles managed to get Butch away from the city. Was a close call; she let the disguise slip a bit too early and he pretty much lost it. Don't worry though; he won't be causing any trouble for a while." She noted how grim his expression was as he said it, and caught a glimpse of what looked to be a fast-darkening bruise underneath his torn sleeve.

"Are you- I mean, thank you. For looking out for Bubbles. For helping us."

"Well, I go to that school too y'know. I'd get bored if it wasn't there. Besides, Butch has been... unstable lately, more than normal I mean. If I didn't do something, people really were gonna die." They both looked over at Buttercup who was half-heartedly trying to shoo her sister away as Bubbles mopped at the blood on her face with a tissue.

"She seemed fine yesterday, you know? I thought everything was finally normal, but now..."

"I've never seen her act like that before. I mean, I knew she was kinda nuts, but not like _that_."

"It's... complicated. Butch... She picks up on his feelings, feels what he's feeling. But it's too strong for her; she can't control it. At least, I think that's what's been happening." Brick quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Feels what he's feeling? How long has that been going on?"

"A little while now. Our Chemical X destabilised and sort of... recalibrated, but it changed in the process." She shrugged. "At first, we were all a little unstable, but I thought we finally had it under control."

"So, that's what Bubbles' little insta-disguise trick is?" Blossom nodded.

"Yes, and Buttercup seems to have some kind of influential empathy. At first, it only seemed to work on the guys in the basketball team, but now she can pick up and influence almost anyone's emotions."

"Right. Okay." She wondered if he was going to ask what power she had picked up, but to her surprise, he didn't. She watched as Buttercup tried to get to her feet, Bubbles helping to hold her up. It looked as though she might have hurt her ankle somehow, but she didn't seem overly concerned by it.

"Hey, uh... I'll help you get her home, okay? Just in case he turns up again." Blossom almost automatically refused the offer, but then thought better of it. He was right; if Butch did turn up again, there was no telling what he would do in his anger over Buttercup 'running away' from the fight earlier. And as strong as Blossom and Bubbles were, they were no match for Butch in one of his berserker rampages. But Brick was stronger than his brother, even if he didn't bother displaying it. They'd be much safer with him there.

"Alright, thank you," she said finally, managing a small smile. "And... maybe you could help me practice again tonight. I think I might finally have cracked Puff the Magic Dragon."


	23. The 22nd

_A few people have been asking me where Boomer is, and I have to admit, I don't know; he's probably been playing Portal 2 or something. I just don't seem to know what I want to do with him really. That said, he will be making a couple more appearances before this is through, don't worry._

**22**

Having got up and ready for school before clicking that school probably wouldn't be happening, Blossom found herself at a bit of a loose end. She finally ended up sitting in the kitchen idly swirling a spoon in her cup of coffee and staring at the far wall.

What had happened yesterday had scared her. As much as she had tried to push it down when they got Buttercup back to the house, it hadn't really worked. Brick had stopped her before she even managed to get her violin out of the case, her hands were shaking that badly. Buttercup's decision to stay down in the lab and have the Professor sedate her while her wounds were healing hadn't made her feel any better either.

As she turned the thoughts over in her head, the Professor entered the kitchen, face pale and eyes bleary.

"Good morning," he managed, before breaking into a massive yawn. She returned the greeting, and then resumed staring at the wall. The Professor looked at her for a long moment, and then pulled a chair out and sat across the table from her.

"She'll be alright Blossom. She's already healed up, good as new."

"But she's _not_ alright Professor. This has just been getting worse and worse ever since she got her new power. I'm scared for her; I think there's going to be a day where she's really not going to be able to stop it. And worse, I think _she_ knows that." The Professor sighed, and rubbed a hand through his already decidedly ruffled hair.

"I've been looking into it. Initially I thought it might be another imbalance in the Chemical X, but it's stabilised again. I don't think there's anything that can be done except to try and support her and help her get a better handle on her powers."

"That's not good enough!" Blossom was vaguely aware that she'd probably just burnt her hand with the way she'd crushed her coffee cup, but she didn't care. "I want to _fix it_. I don't want to have to just sit around and _hope_ I'm helping her! There has to be something we can do." The Professor fixed her with a suddenly stony look.

"The only other solution I can see would be to dose her with Antidote X and leave her stripped of _all_ of her powers. She'd probably be perfectly stable again, but then what happens when that boy turns up looking for another fight?"

Blossom stared at him. If that happened, Butch would probably kill her outright. She'd be useless to him; he wouldn't think anything of it.

"I-" She was cut off as the phone rang. Rushing to answer it rather than continue the discussion with the Professor, she shot a guilty look back towards the kitchen door as she picked up the receiver.

"Hello?"

"Blossom? It's Miss Bellum. Could you come over to the Mayor's office this afternoon please? We have things to discuss."

xxx

Miss Bellum was pacing. Miss Bellum never paced. She sat behind her desk and shuffled paper and was generally very relaxed and in control. She didn't pace irritably up and down in front of the bookcases like this. It was making Blossom uncomfortable as she watched.

"The problem we have, as you may already be aware," she was saying, consulting the sheaf of papers she was holding. "Is that, while we of course _want_ to restore the school buildings, the cost of the building work, all the rewiring and restocking the library is, quite frankly, beyond reasonable funding costs."

"But we _need_ the school," Blossom blurted, somewhat uselessly. She immediately felt somewhat embarassed by the statement; she was here to try and come up with something _useful, _not to state the obvious.

"I know Blossom, but unfortunately, we just can't do everything. The building work is obviously the priority here, but unfortunately, we can't afford to rebuild the music rooms or the library as well as repairing all of the other damage."

"But-"

"Our funds are not bottomless, and most of our money goes to repairing collateral damage to the city. I don't think I need to tell you what causes _that_." Blossom fell silent. That was a low blow, if an entirely accurate one.

At that moment, a secretary popped her head around the door.

"Oh good, send her in please." Miss Bellum said, before the woman had even opened her mouth. Dutifully, the secretary disappeared, and a moment later, the door opened to reveal Princess, dressed in a very nicely tailored suit, which would have been much more sophisticated if she hadn't clumsily fabric-glued dozens of rhinestones around the edges of the jacket collar. The fact that her eyebrows still hadn't quite grown back in yet didn't help much either.

"Miss Morbucks, please have a seat," Miss Bellum said, not even looking at the girl. "I understand your father has an offer for us." A sacchirinely sweet smile slid itself onto Princess' face as she pulled out some kind of smartphone (Blossom had never liked the things, and knew nothing about them) and tapped the screen a few times.

"Given that the school is an _invaluable_ part of the Townsville community, and is clearly important to our future, Morbucks Industries would, of course, be delighted to supply the funding to repair the arts facilities."

"I assume there are conditions?" Princess' smile grew wider.

"Nothing too outrageous. We simply request that the new library and music department carry the Morbucks name, and that we are given a more prominent place on the school board. Also-" She turned that catlike smile to Blossom. "Mr Morbucks politely requests that Blossom here, and her sisters, star in the advertising campaign for out latest product."

Blossom stared at her dumbly for a few seconds.

"Blossom?" Miss Bellum was looking at her expectantly.

"No." Princess raised her approximations of eyebrows.

"But Blossom, my father was ever so insistent about it. He says you and your sisters would be _perfect_ for-"

"I said no. He can find someone else. We won't do it."

"Well maybe _you_ won't-"

"_None of us_, Princess. We do our part to keep the city safe, we are not celebrities to be trotted out and exploited." Miss Bellum coughed politely as Princess tried to draw herself up to her full height, which was an inch shorter than Blossom and none too impressive.

"Girls, please, we have more important things to worry about than arguing right now. Blossom, unless you can come up with a suitable alternative, I urge you to reconsider if you want the arts department of the school restored. Take some time to think about it, alright?"

"Yes Miss Bellum..."

xxx

"You rang?"

"Brick, I don't have your phone number, and even if I did, I wouldn't use it. What do you want?" He shrugged, shoved his hands into his pockets and lightly dropped to the ground beside her, easily matching her walking pace.

"You know what's happening with the school? You were just at the Mayor's office, right?" Blossom sighed, and then gave him a brief run-down of what had happened.

"I know it would be the easiest way to get the school back, but it feels wrong. We don't need any more public exposure than we already have." Brick hummed thoughtfully.

"I guess it makes sense. Besides, I don't want anyone else ogling my girl." That got him a punch in the ribs and a loud retort of '_not_ your girl.'

"All joking aside, I guess we'd better come up with something else, huh?" Blossom nodded, absently fiddling with a strand of her hair that had come loose. She caught Brick looking at her oddly as she did so.

"What?"

"Your hair's not-" He was interrupted by Boomer almost crashing into him as he practically fell out of the sky. Clearly he still hadn't got the hang of landings.

"Brick, he's gone. Got away from me. Don't know where he's gone." Brick paled.

"He _what?_ I told you to watch him!" Boomer held his hands up.

"Hey, you know what he's like. I tried to keep up with him, but he ditched me. Nearly knocked half my teeth out too." He started fumbling in one of his pockets and produced a pack of cigarettes. "Do I ever need a smoke after _that_ one." Brick snatched it out his hand and crushed it.

"You are coming with me. We have to find him, _now_. You know how he's been lately." Boomer's eyes had flashed angrily as Brick destroyed the cigarettes and now he just shrugged, his expression hovering on the line between annoyance and feigned indifference.

"Don't think it's my problem really. Not yours either, except you've gone soft since you started chasing after her." He gestured in Blossom's direction. "I still don't get it man. Yeah, she's pretty hot, but-" He fell silent as Brick shot him a glare that could have peeled paint off a wall.

"You _are_ going to help me find him Boomer, or I'll do worse than knock your teeth out, believe me." His eyes had taken on a sickly red glow, one that Blossom recognised and that made her stomach twist unpleasantly. Boomer apparently had the same reaction, as he immediately lowered his eyes to the pavement and muttered something that sounded more or less compliant.

However, it wasn't just Brick's temper flaring that was making Blossom nervous. Butch was clearly on the warpath, and the most likely target for that was currently at home, unconscious in the basement and utterly defenceless.

And despite the fact that neither she nor Bubbles could take on an enraged Butch and win, she was _not_ going to sit by and let him get to her sister. Not without one hell of a fight.

"I'm going home. I need to get to Buttercup. Brick, Boomer, please, _find him_."

xxx

When she got home, she wasn't greeted by smoking ruins, or any horrific fight scenes taking place. Instead, she burst into the house to find Buttercup ambling to the living room with a mug of hot chocolate and a big bag of marshmallows.

"Woah, what's up with you?" she said, seeing the slightly wild look on Blossom's face.

"I... Uh, no, I mean, nothing. I mean, how are you feeling?" Buttercup cocked her head to one side and looked at her in confusion.

"I'm... alright I guess. All healed up, head's feeling clearer. Are you really okay? Your hair's a mess." Blossom unconsciously put a hand up to her head. It was true; quite a few clumps of hair had sprung loose from her ponytail in her mad dash to get home.

"It... it was just kind of windy out, that's all. I flew home." Naturally, Buttercup wasn't convinced, as even without her empathy powers, Blossom was clearly lying, but she let it slide and continued on to the living room, setting down her mug and flinging herself onto a sofa.

"Professor's out; said he had to go talk to one of his buddies over at the big labs. Might not be back 'til late, but he left money for us to get take-out." Blossom nodded, not really taking any of it in. The situation was just striking her as really, really odd. Yesterday, Buttercup had looked like she was about to take a running jump over the line to utter insanity, while now she was just her regular self, slobby tracksuit bottoms and all, stuffing her face with marshmallows and moaning about the low standard of reality shows while she channel-hopped.

"Don't worry about it," Buttercup mumbled, her eyes never leaving the TV screen. "I'm working on it." Blossom sighed and sat down.

"I want to help. I just want to be able to do _something_."

"S'okay. I know you and Bubbles have my back. I'll be alright. And... I'm sorry I hit you yesterday. I didn't really mean to, I just lost it really badly, but I'll do better next time; I won't let him get to me."

"I... I don't want there to _be_ a next time Buttercup." Her sister smiled wryly.

"No can do Bloss. Me and him pretty much have to fight, otherwise, we'd be totally crazy _all _the time. 'Mallow?"

Sometimes, Blossom felt like Buttercup didn't realise how serious her situation was, but now she was starting to understand that maybe Buttercup did realise, far more than anyone else did. And maybe the only way to really deal with it was to leave her to her own devices; maybe there really was nothing she could do except to try and keep her sister's home life as normal as possible.

She took the marshmallow.


	24. The 23rd

**23**

This was the second day in a row that Blossom had got up to get ready for school on autopilot, except that this time she had stopped herself halfway through, and was now sitting on the sofa in her pyjamas and wondering what she should do with herself.

Bubbles eventually wandered into the living room around ten o'clock, fully dressed and mostly awake.

"Morning," she said brightly, disappearing into the kitchen for a moment or two and coming back with a glass of orange juice. "I've got a meeting about the New York trip again today; you wouldn't believe the amount of stuff we have to do."

"At least you're keeping busy." Bubbles tilted her head to the side.

"What's up with you, huh? Bored since school's off?"

"I suppose so. I don't really know what to do with myself."

"Well, you haven't been over to the dojo in a while." That was true actually. Given all the recent upheaval, Blossom had been neglecting to practice her aikido. Still, somehow she just didn't feel motivated enough to feel as outraged at herself as she probably should.

"You know, I think I might just go to the library for a while or something."

xxx

The library had seemed like a good idea until she'd got there and seen this. Blossom was having flashbacks to those horrible days when Brick was leaving roses everywhere for her. Yet somehow, this was still worse.

"Where did these come from?" she whispered, vague horror in her voice. In front of her was a large poster proclaiming her as being due to perform a charity violin performance at the city hall next Tuesday, with a big blown up picture of her taken from a recent news article. In fact, the posters seemed to be everywhere. She had never agreed to this. Who had-

Oh of c_ourse_. Oh he was dead. He was _so_ dead.

xxx

"If I told you, you would have said no!" Her fist missed him by inches as he spun out of the way and and leapt backwards. She chased him, eyes blazing.

"Miss Bellum said it was a great idea! And if you do this, you don't have to go for the advertising deal, and the school s_till_ gets the arts department back. It's win-win!"

"_No it isn't you moron_!" She launched herself at him and finally managed to clip him in the side. Granted, it was a completely superficial strike, and he reacted by simply laughing and twisting away from her _again_. She continued chasing him.

"Come on, what's the big deal?" he asked, jumping back over her and grabbing her arms from behind, pinning them to her sides. She struggled briefly, although given how much stronger he was than her, it was basically useless.

"I... I _hate_ performing. It's pointless, and stupid, and I might as well draw a huge target on my chest and people could get _hurt_ and-" He turned her around to face him, looking skeptical. Her arms were still firmly pinned to her sides.

"Seriously?"

"Wha- of course seriously! I'd be making myself extremely vulnerable to attack, in an enclosed space where innocent civilians could and would get hurt!"

"Oh, I get it. You're scared that you'd mess up the performance in front of that many people, aren't you? Never pegged you for being shy." She felt her face flushing.

"That isn't it!" She took a breath and tried to compose herself. "Urgh, I wouldn't expect you to understand. It's not like you've ever felt the need to protect anything except yourself and your own stupid pride."

"Hey, I protected you from Butch, didn't I? And Buttercup."

"That's not-" She felt his fingers lift her chin to look at him and was suddenly aware how very close together they were standing. But it wasn't awkward, it wasn't uncomfortable. She was still angry at him and he was still holding one arm to her side and there wasn't any sort of tension other than faint aggression between them right now. But she didn't want to punch him in the face any more.

"Bloss, why don't you do this? It'll get the school back to normal and you'll be as a big a hero as ever."

"That's not what this is about, Brick." He let her arm go and dropped his other hand from her chin. Something in his expression had shifted, and for some reason, Blossom understood that he hadn't done this to humiliate her, or to hurt her in any way. He genuinely thought that it would help.

And it would. She knew it was a good idea. Every rich businessperson in the city would be tripping over themselves to show support for something like this. They'd up their reputations by turning out at anything to do with the Girls, and throwing a bit of money into it wouldn't hurt either.

"I... I suppose if it's just this once. And you've already put these posters _everywhere_-"

"That was Boomer actually," Brick cut in. "Butch is passed out at home after finding Boomer's weed stash, so he was already going out for more and-"

"Stop, I don't need to know. The point is, it is a good idea, and it will help the school. The only thing is..." She took a breath. "I'm... going to need help practicing and choosing the pieces I play."

The smirk that slid onto his face told her exactly what he was going to say, so she decided to slug him across the jaw and say 'thank you' instead of letting him actually say it.

xxx

"My god, the _front door_?" Blossom rolled her eyes as she slid her key into the lock.

"You were allowed through the front door the other day when you carried Buttercup home for us."

"Yeah, but I don't have an armful of Powerpuff this time. Unless-"

"No. Just get inside. Living room's straight ahead."

As she closed the door behind them, she suddenly heard a dull thud and a surpised male squawking noise coming from the direction of the living room. Upon inspection, this turned out to be Buttercup with Brick in a choke-hold, with the thud appearing to have originated from the empty mug she'd apparently dropped in order to put him in said choke-hold.

"It's okay Buttercup, you can put him down. He's... he's with me." Her sister's eyes widened momentarily, flickered to Brick, and then back to Blossom. Although she still seemed wary, she did let go. To give Brick credit, he didn't flop to the floor gasping for air, although he was looking very red in the face and his cap had half fallen off. Despite herself, Blossom let out a small snigger.

"Sorry to disturb you Buttercup," she said, as Brick straightened himself and his cap. "He's helping me with violin practice." Her sister raised an eyebrow.

"Here? That's a new one." She glanced at Brick. "Not trying anything funny with my sister, are you?"

"No more than usual, but I promise my intentions are strictly honourable." She smirked at the response, apparently satisfied.

"Fine, but I'm gonna be in my room just down the hall, so I'll feel it if you two start-"

"Buttercup!" Both her sister and Brick adopted identical catlike grins as Blossom felt her face go bright red. "That is _not_ _appropriate._"

"Nope, not in the slightest. Later." She scooped up her mug and dumped it in the kitchen before heading upstairs to her room, leaving a sudden awkward silence in her wake. Well, it was awkward on Blossom's end. Brick, on the other hand, still seemed extremely amused and totally unfazed.

"Come on," she growled tugging his sleeve roughly as she stormed past him. "You've got a concert to help me plan."

xxx

Three hours later, concert plans were not going well. Brick's insistance that Puff the Magic Dragon be present in the song list was ensuring that Blossom's temper kept rising.

And then there was a banging noise from downstairs, and Bubbles was yelling her name. Wonderful.

"What is it?" she asked, drifting down the stairs. She blinked and dropped her feet to the ground when she saw Bubbles standing with Boomer and looking mildly outraged. Boomer too looked mildly outraged, but this might have been because of the petite blonde with the rather painful looking hold on his ear. His spine seemed to be bent at a rather odd angle because of it.

"I found him putting these up in town," she said, waving one of the concert posters at her.

"Oh. Oh you don't have to blame-"

"_Why did I not know about this?_" Bubbles let go of both Boomer and the poster and started pacing agitatedly around the living room. "I mean _really_, I'll need to find something to wear, and something for Buttercup _and_ you, because you're both _hopeless_, and then there's the shoes-"

"Wait, wait, wait, I didn't even know about this until this morning, and why on earth did you drag _him_ home with you?" She gestured at Boomer, who was still rubbing his ear and seemed confused.

"Oh, I just saw him putting up the posters and just sort of grabbed both of them. _Anyway_, how could you not know? This is like, a huge thing. I thought you didn't like performing anyway."

"It was Brick's idea, to help raise money for repairing the school. I don't like it much, but it _is_ a good idea. Also, he had the posters made up and put around town before I found out; there's nothing I can really do about it now." She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"Hmm, well, if that's the case then you can leave it to me to sort out your outfit. And I'm sure Brick will be going too, so _he'll_ need a suit." She whipped out her mobile and started dialling furiously. "I'll call Sally; her dad runs a formal hire place. I'm sure she'll get us a discount if I tell her it's for a good cause. Are you coming too Boomer?" He blinked at her.

"Uh..."

"Okay, so that's _two_ suits, maybe a trip to the barber too. Oh nevermind, I can cut your hair myself; it's not like it's hard."

"Hey! I never agreed to this!" She rolled her eyes and started jabbering down the phone to Sally, leaving Boomer getting steadily more flustered and Blossom feeling more and more disoriented by the whole affair.

Buttercup and Brick came down the stairs after another few minutes, and Blossom briefly heard her sister muttering the word 'Butch' under her breath, followed by an equally hushed reply from Brick. Their conversation ended the second they reached the base of the stairs however, and surveyed the scene currently happening in the living room.

"Brick, man, help me. This blonde chick is _nuts_." Brick raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you said she was cute."

"_Dude!"_ Boomer shot a glance at Bubbles to make sure that she hadn't heard. Then of course he noticed that Blossom and Buttercup _had_ heard, with the latter grinning in a decidedly evil sort of way, and his already red face went positively crimson.

"Okay, that aside, can we all just stop for a moment?" Blossom pleaded. She currently had one sister in an outfit planning frenzy and two Rowdyruff Boys in her living room. Top that off with the fact that one of them had been in her bedroom all afternoon and also that she was suddenly appearing in concert next week, and you had a recipe for Blossom to suddenly feel just a _little bit _fragile.

In the background, Bubbles laughed merrily, said goodbye to Sally and hung up, turning her blue eyes to Blossom.

"Oh, did you want your dress to be pink, or red? I was thinking maybe pink, but red seems much more mature, don't you think?"

"If she's wearing red, I demand a red shirt." Bubbles nodded enthusiastically at Brick's suggestion as Blossom felt the situation slipping helplessly through her fingers. This was it. She was clearly doomed.


	25. The 24th

**24**

There was banging coming from somewhere. Blossom groaned as she rolled over and tried to block out the sound. It was still early; she didn't have to get up yet.

"Just leave me alone," she muttered, burying herself deeper under her covers. However, she heard the door opening, and a few seconds later, Bubbles was shaking her.

"Blossom, come _on_, I've been knocking for _ages_." Bubbles was waking _her_ up. That was new.

"What time is it?" she mumbled, levering herself upright and dragging her hair back from her face.

"Eleven. Anyway, I went into town this morning to take a look at dresses for Tuesday and I think I've found the _perfect_ one for you. Red satin, _very_ glamourous."

_Eleven o'clock, really?_ Blossom thought, feeling bewildered at how late she'd slept. Sure, she didn't have anything in particular that she needed to get up for, but she didn't make it a habit to sleep past ten. Bubbles was continuing to babble on about dresses and shoes and would Blossom need a handbag if she was going to be on stage most of the night? Blossom swung her legs out of bed and stretched herself.

"Oh, and Brick's waiting downstairs. Actually, that's the reason I came to wake you up. Guess I forgot; you know how much I love talking about clothes." She gave an airy laugh as the blood drained from Blossom's face.

"Brick is _what?"_

"Oh, he turned up like ten minutes ago, but he said-" Blossom blurred past her sister and into the bathroom as fast as possible. Awake less than ten minutes and it was _already_ a bad day.

xxx

As she finished dragging her brush through her hair, Blossom tried hard to avoid looking at her outfit in the mirror.

_You are wearing this dress because you need to do your laundry. That is the only reason. You are not trying to impress him. You don't care what he thinks. You don't even like him. Well, certainly not like _that_ anyway._

She pulled a face. Was she really having that old cliched internal debate? She thought that only happened in movies and books. Glancing at her watch, she sighed and stood up. Whether she liked it or not, Brick was helping her practice for this concert, and she didn't trust herself to practice alone for this anyway; her playing had improved a great deal since he'd started helping her, and she didn't want to risk it slipping.

When she reached the living room, she found him apparently losing rather badly at whatever Xbox game Buttercup had probably demanded that he play. That said, it was hard to tell who was actually winning; both competitors were swearing rather a lot.

"Brick?" At the sound of her voice, Brick immediately paused the game and turned a wide grin in her direction. To her disdain, her stomach gave a small twist at the sight of it. She also had to try and ignore the way his eyes flickered down and then dragged back up along the length of her legs. _Stupid, stupid dress._

"You should have told me you were coming over," she continued, flattening whatever silly acrobatics her stomach was trying to pull. "It's impolite to just show up univited." Brick opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off as Buttercup spoke for him.

"He's a Rowdyruff, what does he know about manners?" Brick raised an eyebrow at her.

"And I suppose you are well-versed in all rules of etiquette?"

"Hey, I got plenty of manners, I just choose not to use 'em." Blossom rolled her eyes. Since when did Buttercup get along _this _easily with people? Especially people who until a few years ago had delighted when beating the tar out of the three of them. One of them still did.

"Anyway, Brick, I suppose you're here for practice?" He nodded.

"Sure am, but I thought we could go use the town hall today. They have a piano there; thought it might help you get the pieces down properly if I played them with you." He winked at her, and she fought the urge to roll her eyes. Yes, it did help when he played along with her, but he didn't have to be so damned _smug_ about it.

"Welll, get going then, will you? God, you're making me feel ill." They turned to look at Buttercup, who winked at Brick and gave them both a lopsided grin. "Seriously, any longer with you two in the room and I'm gonna get diabetes or something."

xxx

"I cannot _believe_ her sometimes. As if it was _anything_ like that. I mean, she _knows_-"

"_Blossom!_" he yelled finally. "Are you actually going to play the violin or not?" She glanced down and found that she was holding it at her side again. Every time it had made it to her shoulder, she'd suddenly had an urge to rant about her sister's teasing.

"I'm just saying..."

"You've been 'just saying' for the last half hour. Keep it up, and Puff the Magic Dragon is gonna be the star piece, I swear."

"Fine, let's get on with it then."

They played their way through three short pieces and two longer ones, stopping every now and then to discuss the order and whether or not they should look at some other options. While she enjoyed the planning of it, and she enjoyed playing the pieces, Blossom still felt uncomfortable with the idea of actually performing them. It was just going to her, all alone on that stage. What if she froze up? What if her playing was boring? How did you even make a solo violin performance interesting for more than one or two pieces anyway?

"Blossom?"

"What?" she didn't realise how lost in her thoughts she actually was, and jumped about a foot in the air at the sound of his voice.

"You stopped again."

"Oh." She was starting to feel thoroughly frazzled by this point, only made worse by the fact that she was _good_ at organising things. This sudden inability to organise herself was stressing her out even more. Suddenly, her phone started buzzing in her pocket.

"Oh, goodness, that's my phone." She fumbled it out of her pocket, praying for a monster attack just so she could get out of this. Her heart leapt at the sight of Miss Bellum's name on the screen. "There must be some kind of emergency, so I guess we'll just have to cut this short for now. Hello?"

"Oh good, I tried phoning your house but the Professor told me you were out. Anyway, I was just phoning to tell you that I've sorted out the venue plans for the concert next Tuesday. Also, I think it would be a good idea for you to prepare a thank you speech for the after party. It might encourage a few of the more... frugal of our guests to donate a little more generously. Every little helps and all that."

"Uh, I... yes, of course. Umm, thank you Miss Bellum."

"Not at all dear; this is a wonderful thing for the school, and for Townsville too. I'll need to speak to you and your sisters about the security arrangements, but we can save that for another time. Saturday evening perhaps."

"Oh, of course."

"Good. Alright then, speak to you soon. I'll call again if anything else comes up." She hung up, and Blossom felt her heart sink again. This was just not her day.

"Nothing major," she said weakly. "Let's get back to practice."

Xxx

Despite the fact that she was still telling herself not to get too comfortable around Brick, she had to admit that it was getting much harder not to do so. It didn't help that he had just gone out and brought back two boxes of noodles, a box of doughnuts and two cups of coffee back for their lunch without letting her split the money with him. Of course, she knew this may partly be to do with his grand scheme to make her go out with him, or whatever the end goal of his plan _really_ was (there was no way it could be that simple, surely), but all the same, free lunch was always nice.

Also, these noodles were fantastic. When she asked where he'd got them from, Brick just shrugged, and mentioned that he _may_ have flown over to Thailand. When she started spluttering, he just laughed and told her that, no, it wasn't Thailand, just a quick trip to the next town over.

"Had you going for a minute there though, didn't I?" She narrowed her eyes and swiped him on the arm, but she laughed at the same time. Before, something like that would genuinely have annoyed her, but now it didn't seem to matter. Was there any sort of significance to that? Her stomach started twisting around itself again, and she hastily ate more of her food to try and calm it. _No use thinking about something like that, just focus on the show._

Just then, her phone started buzzing again, and at the same time, Brick's phone let out a blast of what sounded like an AC/DC track (Blossom couldn't be sure; that was more Buttercup's taste in music).

"Hello?"

"Blossom! Blossom you have to get home _now_. Butch just showed up and Buttercup's freaking out and Boomer's out there trying to stop him but I don't know if it's working and-"

"Bubbles, stop. I'm on my way." She hung up, and shot a look over to Brick, who hung up his call seconds after she did, his expression suddenly deadly serious.

"Boomer?" He nodded.

"Bubbles?"

"Yes. We need to move."

xxx

They had flown out of the city centre as fast as they could. Blossom could feel her eyes start to stream in the wind as she urged herself to fly faster. However, as they neared her street, Brick suddenly grabbed her and pulled her to the ground, hiding them both behind a hedge around the corner.

"Wait a minute," he said, frowning. "It's too quiet. They aren't fighting." Blossom felt herself pale.

"You don't think-"

"No, I don't think anything's happened. The whole place would be in ruins." She nodded shakily. The logic was sound enough. She fought the urge to giggle hysterically; here she was applying _logic_ to a situation involving Buttercup and Butch.

Brick peered around the hedgerow that was obscuring the ajoining street from view. He motioned for her to look as well, and she gingerly leaned around him, holding his shoulder for support.

Butch was still in front of the house, and surprisingly, so was Buttercup. Even more surprisingly, they weren't fighting, and they didn't appear to be arguing either. However, Blossom could see from here that Buttercup was something between terrified and angry, and Butch wasn't doing much better, although possibly missing the terrified part.

"Dammit," Brick hissed. "They're talking too quietly. I can't make any of it out." Blossom chewed her lip and reached out with her power. She had no great desire to go anywhere near Butch's mind, so she tried Buttercup first. Unfortunately, her thoughts were still too fractured and abstract for Blossom to make much sense of it all. Steeling herself, she tried Butch, but his mind was almost identical to hers. A whirl of images and vague, broken words. It was all too disjointed, too overwhelming and Blossom reeled back several steps as she pulled away from their minds.

"You alright?" Brick asked, looking concerned, and slightly confused.

"Yes, I'm fine. I don't think they're going to fight, but..."

Suddenly, Butch shot up into the air and away, leaving Buttercup alone in front of the house, looking extremely shaken. She shuddered slightly, staring after him and not moving.

"I have to go talk to her." Brick grabbed her arm.

"Be careful. Don't push her; she'll never say a word if you do." Blossom nodded and stepped out from behind the hedge, approaching her sister.

"Buttercup?" she said quietly. Her sister looked down.

"You ever think you know the score, but it turns out that everything is way more messed up than you thought possible?" Her voice was flat, carefully devoid of any emotion. It made Blossom want to cry just hearing her speak like that. Buttercup let out a dry laugh.

"Go ahead. It's not like I can. Too tough; big girl like me doesn't cry."

Blossom said nothing, only stepped forward and put her arms round her sister, feeling her tense up and then sag slightly.

"You cried when your lucky blanket got torn when we were six. You cried when that huge spider appeared in the bath when we were eight and when you broke your ankle in your first basketball game when you were twelve. You can still cry Buttercup, even if you don't want to admit it."

There was a click of a door opening and closing behind them, and Bubbles joined them, sliding her arms around Buttercup without a word. They stood like that for a while, without talking, and Blossom saw a red vapour trail take off into the distance.


	26. The 25th

_Just a quick note to thank everybody for all the reviews I've been getting. Seriously, I love you guys, you're all amazing and make me feel like I can actually write worth a damn._

**25**

Buttercup wouldn't talk about what had happened. Ever since they'd got her back into the house last night, she'd neatly dodged any questions, even the ones that her sisters hadn't even asked. As it stood, Bubbles had finally given up and was trying valiantly to continue her outfit plans, while Blossom felt as though her stomach was trying to eat itself, she was that worried.

"Do you think-"

"Blossom, you know what she's like; she's too stubborn to talk. Now, do you think black or gold shoes would go better with this dress?"

"Does it make a difference?" Bubbles gave her a look.

"The concert's in three days, and you're going to be on stage in front of a couple of hundred people. Yes, it makes a difference." She scanned the picture of the dress that she had on her phone. "Definitely gold. It'll be easier to match jewellery that way."

_Three days? Can it really only be three days?_ Blossom began to panic.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually need to see Brick. I need to get some serious practice in today and of course this would be the day he _doesn't_ show up." Bubbles held up a piece of paper.

"He got Boomer to drop this off yesterday." Blossom took it. It was a phone number, with 'to stop me being impolite again,' scrawled above it in Brick's messy handwriting. Despite herself, she felt her lips twist up in a half smile. Bubbles finally shoved her phone back into her bag and slung it over her shoulder.

"Well, I'll leave you to it then. I'm going to go buy these dresses and stuff. I'll see you later, kay?"

She breezed out and left Blossom with a half finished cup of tea and the phone number.

xxx

"'_And even if I did, I wouldn't use it.' _Wasn't that what you said?"

"Brick, do not make me break this violin over your head. For one thing, it would ruin the concert and I'd have suffered your company for nothing."

"I'm only teasing Bloss, you know that."

"And don't call me Bloss."

As much as the arguing was not helping her efforts to practice, and as a consequence was not easing her panic over her impending concert, she had to grudgingly admit to herself that she was still kind of having fun. Brick had brought coffee again and when he wasn't teasing her mercilessly, he was actually being constructive about her playing.

Of course, the fact that her stomach had started doing odd things whenever he broke out one of those really big, genuine grins was starting to get on her nerves.

"Now, are you _absolutely sure_ that you don't want Puff in there?"

"Are you _absolutely sure_ that you don't want me to rearrange your ear to rear end ratio?" He pressed a hand to his heart and rocked backwards on the piano stool.

"Blossom, those scathing comebacks of yours _wound_ me. Although I do like that one; I may have to steal it."

"Well as long as that's all you're stealing these days, then be my guest. Now can we _please_ get back to what's actually getting played at this thing? I'm worrying enough as it is." He laughed and then complied, and they managed to do a full run-through without too many hiccups. But Blossom was still worried that it might be boring.

"How do you even make this sort of thing interesting for more than a few solos? I mean, at least with an orchestra there are plenty of different people to look at, but it's just going to be me up there."

"Well, I know _I_ could never get tired of looking at you." She gave him a withering glare, and forcefully ignored the little part of her that was making delighted squeaking noises in the back of her mind. His teasing done with, Brick actually considered the question.

"Well, I could always get Boomer in and we can rig up some pyrotechnics or something. That might work. You know, give it a bit of _oomph_ at some of the crescendos."

"Are you kidding? We'd never get away with that. It breaks almost every fire safety regulation ever; you need really specialist equipment and venues for that kind of thing."

"Oh, it's cool, I totally know a guy who can sort that out. He always gets his hands on the best gear, and he's really good at getting around all the regulations, so-" She stopped him.

"Guy?" He looked sheepish.

"Uhh... You remember Snake?"

"As in from the Gangreen Gang?"

"Yeah, he's been going solo since last summer. Said Ace was cramping his sssssstyle." Blossom tried really hard to look disapproving, but the impression was too much for her, and she started giggling instead. Dammit.

"Look, no pyrotechnics, and no Snake, alright? That's the last thing I need. Let's just get back to practicing, shall we?"

xxx

"So, why are we here again?" Blossom surveyed the cafe in front of her with skepticism. It didn't look like much; the white walls were dirty and the sign sitting by the door had definitely seen better days. But Brick seemed enthusiastic.

"Best ice cream in Townsville, I swear."

"Brick, it's _February_, it's still cold out; why on Earth would I want ice cream?"

"Because you've never had _this_ ice cream. Just wait."

"We could still be practicing right now." She checked her watch. "It's only half three; we could get at least one more run-through done and-"

"I don't know about you, but _I_ needed a break, and some of the blueberry ice cream they make here. Two secs, I'll get you something too."

"No, that's really-" He was gone, and yet another sentence died before completion. She sighed and tried not to let it bother her. Instead, she huddled inside her coat and tried to ignore the wind that was tugging her hair all over the place.

"Here you go; got you mocha." She blinked as the, rather overloaded, cone appeared in front of her face.

"Ah, thanks," she said, a little awkwardly as she extracted her hands from her pockets and took the cone. Despite the fact that the wind was making her extremely reluctant to put the ice cream anywhere near her already numb-with-cold mouth, she did anyway.

Suddenly she understood why Brick had felt the need to drag her here.

"How do you keep finding these places? This is amazing." He laughed.

"Well I needed _something_ to do when I didn't go to school and only had my two morons of brothers to hang out with. Crime gets kinda boring if you do it all the time, so I just ended up wandering around a lot. It's amazing what you can find if you get bored enough."

"So I suppose even criminal masterminds need other things to do with their time."

"Ah, so you admit that I _am_ a mastermind then?" She took another mouthful of ice cream.

"Criminal, yes. Mastermind might be stretching it a little bit."

"Still beat you in that last maths test."

They bickered all the way back to the town hall, and it was only once the ice cream was gone and she was picking up her violin again that she realised just how much she was enjoying this. Not the practicing, not the food, just spending time.

This was bad. Probably.

"Can we _please_ do Puff? Just this once? For fun?"

Oh no, wait, _there_ was the annoyance. It hadn't gone away; that was more promising.

xxx

"Professor, Professor, look!" Blossom tried to protest as Bubbles shoved her into the kitchen in her new dress. The Professor, who was making dinner for once, with Buttercup assisting him, blinked once or twice and then broke out into a broad grin.

"You look lovely Blossom. Is this for the concert?" Blossom nodded, fidgeting with her skirt. Bubbles had been right abour the dress, although Blossom felt it was a little low-cut in the neckline, and there seemed to be an unneccesary amount of ruffles in the skirt for a knee-length dress. Bubbles had also pulled on her new sapphire-blue velvet cocktail dress and was currently trying to wrestle Buttercup away from the chopping board so she could force her into her brand new emerald ensemble.

"Bubbles, do I need to remind you that I have a _knife?_ Like, right here?" Bubbles was not to be deterred.

"You need to try it on so I know if it fits or not. The concert's on Tuesday; we don't have a lot of time to get it changed if it's wrong."

"But why do I need to wear a dress? And does it need to be green? I could just wear black or-"

"_You are wearing this dress._" Even Blossom flinched at that tone. That tone rivalled the most authoritative of Blossom's. That tone was not to be messed with under any circumstances. That tone was why Boomer was currently sat in a suit in the living room and looking utterly miserable. Brick, on the other hand, had been preening himself in the hall mirror since he'd put his on.

"Say, Professor?" Blossom asked, sidling around Bubbles and Buttercup as the former placed the latter in a death grip and started dragging her towards the door. "Are you really alright with the Boys being here?" He chuckled.

"Blossom, if I wasn't, I wouldn't have allowed them in. Remember, I do have a hefty stash of antidote X in the lab; I would have dealt with them if it was a problem." He paused and gave her a long, steady look. "Are _you_ alright with it? You have been spending a lot of time with Brick lately, but that's no reason to assume that you're comfortable with this."

"No, no that's not it. I was just worried. I mean, it wasn't too long ago that Boomer attacked us in the park, and Brick's known for his schemes and-" She stopped as he placed a comforting hand on her head.

"Blossom, I trust your judgement, and your sisters' too. Well, mostly Bubbles, but Buttercup does have her sensible moments some days. Now, I think you'd better go make sure they aren't causing trouble, hmm?" She managed to break out a smile for him and, after a moment's deliberation, threw a hug in for good measure.

"Oh, before you go, Miss Bellum rang earlier. She said to tell you that the venue arrangements are all made; no need to go back up to her office." Blossom nodded. Although slightly disappointed that she hadn't played a part in those decisions, it was another thing that she didn't have to worry about.

"Thanks Professor."

As she wandered back into the living room, Brick emerged from the hall, tugging his tie straight. As much as she hated to admit it, he did look really good in that suit, only helped by the fact that Bubbles had picked a black shirt and red silk tie for him, and confiscated his hat.

"Well don't we clean up nice?" he said, looking her up and down in such a way that made her feel both uncomfortable and yet oddly pleased. The fact that the light tone he was going for had a decidedly meaningful edge that was, she assumed, unintentional, also made something in her want to jump up and down and declare that she was the happiest girl on the planet. She squashed that particular feeling _very_ quickly.

"Bubbles, no! I'm not-"

"Yes, you _are_." Everyone turned as Bubbles forcibly shoved Buttercup into the room, the latter cursing none too quietly at the treatment.

"Wow." It was the first word Boomer had said since Bubbles had finally wrestled his tie around his neck and tied it for him. It was also an appropriate reaction.

The dress Bubbles had got for Buttercup was very simple. Sleeveless, it fell to her knees and didn't cling anywhere, while still accentuating her figure. She looked fantastic in it, plain and simple.

She also clearly hated having to wear it.

"Why does it have to be a dress? I haven't worn a dress since I was seven years old." Bubbles glared at her for a minute or two in response, and finally, Buttercup backed down, tugging restlessly at the skirt. Her sister slapped her hands away impatiently and told her to go show the Professor, which Buttercup reluctantly sidled off to do.

"I think these'll do nicely, don't you?" Bubbles said triumphantly, looking around at her assembled outfits.

"Yes, they're all lovely, thank you Bubbles." Blossom was still feeling slightly overwhelmed at the whole thing, but somehow, she felt a bit better now. Maybe it was the fact that Bubbles was really pulling all of the behind the scenes bits together, and she and Brick had finally decided on a programme for the show. Whatever it was, she was just relieved that she no longer felt like she was going to implode from all the random stress attacks on her psyche.

Then, as Buttercup emerged from the kitchen, there were two simultaneous clicks as Brick and Boomer took pictures of her with their phones.

"What the- _you'd better delete those right now_." Brick snapped his phone shut with a smirk.

"Not on your life. This is a momentous occasion; I had to take a picture." Blossom sighed as Buttercup started snarling at him in a _very_ unladylike fashion. This was going to be a long evening, she could tell.


	27. The 26th

_Phew, this chapter was hard work. Sorry it took so long to update. IRL drama happened and then I just couldn't seem to get the ending to this chapter right. I hope it's turned out okay_ ^_^;

**26**

"I heard that the school could be ready for re-opening next week." Blossom nodded and handed the Professor his coffee.

"The damage could have been much worse; quite a lot of it was just smoke damage more than anything else. It looked worse than it was." The Professor smiled absently and went back to his newspaper and Blossom finished fixing herself a cup of tea. Brick had told her yesterday that he would drop by around lunch time to help her with practice, so she had the whole morning to relax.

Wandering through to the living room with her cup, she folded herself onto the sofa next to her sisters. Buttercup was playing another of her vast collection of video games, while Bubbles was idly scrolling through webpages on her laptop.

"Hey, Bubbles, shouldn't you be sorting things out for New York? I mean, that's soon, right?"

"Oh, yeah, it's next month, but it's fine. I finished organising all of that already, so now I can concentrate on helping you with Tuesday." Blossom smiled. It was amazing how ruthlessly organised Bubbles could be when she felt like it. Blossom almost looked like an amateur next to her sometimes.

"Thanks for all of this Bubbles. I don't know what I'd have done without you."

"Turned into a big pile of panic?" Buttercup asked, in what was probably supposed to be a helpful sounding tone, but was coloured by her usual dry sense of humour. Blossom simply smiled sweetly at her and sipped her tea. She was in a good mood today, even if she wasn't entirely sure why.

"What are you doing today anyway, Buttercup?" Bubbles asked, her eyes never leaving the page she had open on her screen.

"Uh, I dunno. Staying here I guess. Not got much else to do."

"Oh good, you can come and help me pick out the last of the jewellery for Tuesday then. You're tricky to buy for; I want to see what'll look good on you." Buttercup's face did a variety of things, phasing through puzzlement, panic and finally settling on defiance.

"No thanks, I'm good." Bubbles made a small noise somewhere in her throat. Buttercup was not daunted.

"I hate shopping for stuff like that. Call one of your girly friends or something. Besides, what if-" She stopped short, and then realised that was a serious mistake. Bubbles frowned, her expression thoughtful.

"What if...?" Blossom froze, tea cup half way to her mouth. She had suddenly caught a very dangerous thought drifting into Bubbles' mind.

"Bubbles, don't!" It was too late. Before she'd even got the second word out, Bubbles had shifted her appearance already, and Buttercup looked she was caught somewhere between having a seizure and murdering her sister. The whole thing took place in less than a second.

"Is _this_ what you're afraid of Buttercup?" Bubbles asked, her voice sounding... _wrong_ coming out of that body. Buttercup didn't say anything. It looked like she wasn't able to, her eyes staying locked onto Bubbles' newly green ones. Blossom, after a second's deliberation, proceeded to empty the rest of her tea onto Bubbles' head, causing her to abruptly shift back to her own form.

"This isn't helping Bubbles. What on earth did you think you were doing? Apologise." Bubbles blinked tea out of her eyes, looked at Buttercup, and the immense stupidity of what she'd done seemed to hit her as she saw the murderous intent staring back at her.

"Oh, oh no Buttercup, I'm so sorry. I didn't _think_, I just... I'm so used to you never being _scared_ and you haven't _said_ anything about him, so I thought that maybe..."

"I'm not scared of him!" Buttercup spat viciously, and the sofa rocked backwards as she flung herself onto her feet. Her game controller was reduced to a handful of plastic and circuitry in her hand, and after staring at it for a second, she hurled it to the ground in frustration and stormed out, thundering up the stairs. Blossom stared blankly at the pieces for a second. She could see blood on some of the bigger shards of plastic.

"Oh god. Why did I _do_ that?" Bubbles moaned, shoving her laptop off her and proceeding to wrap her arms around her legs and gently thump her forehead off her knees. Tea was still dripping from her hair, causing damp patches to appear on her jeans.

"Well, it's done now, you'll just have to make it up to her later. At least that proved that there is _something_ going on though. I'll ask Brick about it later; maybe he'll know something."

xxx

"Is it really that bad?" Blossom nodded. The two of them were sitting on a bench in the park, having both decided that they needed some fresh air.

"It was a stupid thing for Bubbles for do, but neither of us could have predicted how she'd react."

"She hit her?"

"No, it was like... I don't know. She looked like she really didn't know what to do. I think she w_anted_ to hit her, but she was stopping herself. I just want to know what's going on. He's your brother; don't you know anything?" Brick was silent for a moment or two. Blossom watched his face. He seemed strangely serious; he was really considering whatever he was thinking about.

"What is it?" she asked, when the suspense got too much for her. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, frowning, before he spoke.

"Butch... Look, the last few years, he's been unstable. Like, he always used to challenge me on stuff, but a while back, he just stopped listening to me altogether. If he's around, he just does whatever he wants, but most of the time he just disappears for days at a time, sometimes weeks." He sighed, pulled his hat off and ran a hand through his hair, looking exasperated.

"Basically, most of the time I have no idea where he is, and even when he _is_ around, I have no idea what's running through his head. All I do know is that lately he's been even more obsessed with fighting Buttercup than usual. That's why he attacked the park that night at the fountain thing, and the school."

Blossom turned all this over in her head for a moment or two. She was disappointed in a way. For some reason, she'd just assumed that Brick would have all the answers, some magical solution that would just fix all of this. But of course, that was silly of her. He was in the same situation as she was; she had no real way of knowing of Buttercup was thinking, even if she could read her mind. There was no reason to think that Brick would be any different with Butch.

"There's something else I've been wondering about." He gave her a questioning look.

"That night at the park... Boomer attacked us too, but now it's like that never happened. It... I just find it strange." Brick gave out a short laugh.

"No offense to the guy, but Boomer pretty much just does what anyone suggests to him at the time. He was probably bored and just tagged along with Butch 'cus he had nothing better to do than sit around and get stoned. He's only listening to Bubbles now because, let's face it, she's pretty scary when she's organising stuff like this." Blossom nodded fervently. It was true. For someone as passive as she was, Bubbles did have her moments.

"Well, I suppose he's keeping out of trouble now, more or less." They lapsed into an easy silence for a little while, and Blossom realised that she was feeling quite relaxed about the concert now. That said, it may only have been because she was back to worrying about Buttercup, but at least Bubbles was with her on that one. A few more minutes passed before Brick suddenly broke the silence. She hadn't noticed the slowly deepening frown that had reappeared on his features until he stood up and turned to her.

"Come with me."

xxx

"Is this really a good idea?"

"You're worried about your sister, aren't you? This'll probably get us nowhere, but we might as well try." Blossom chewed her lip and tried to resist her urge to launch into an entire tactical tirade about why this was a terrible idea. She hadn't exactly been number one in the good plan department this month anyway; she couldn't really talk.

Brick had brought her to a small apartment complex on the south side of town, in a relatively run-down residential area. Along the way, he'd explained that the boys had moved in there a few years ago, under mostly legal circumstances. Not that they paid rent or bills or anything, but he glossed that part over, mentioning that Mojo took care of those expenses. Without his knowledge, naturally, but at least _someone_ was paying. Blossom tried very hard to ignore all of this. Why did she keep forgetting that, for all that she seemed to spend most of her time with him, this boy was s_till a criminal?_

And now they were going to talk to his criminally insane brother. This just kept getting better. She swallowed hard, and tried not to think about it too much.

Butch was stretched out on one of two rather worse-for-wear sofas in the surprisingly large living room of the apartment. Looking up as they entered, he cracked a sardonic grin and ripped open the pack of cigarettes in his hands.

"Want one?" he said, offering the pack. "Stole 'em from Boomer's stash."

"Big challenge there, bro. That the best you got these days?" Butch's lip curled at his brother's tone.

"I ain't the ones with the brain for all the plans, but since all you seem to care about these days is chasin' tail, I'm not the only one. Can't believe you actually brought a Puff _here_." He shoved one of the cigarettes in his mouth and lit it from the tip of his thumb, lying back and closing his eyes.

Blossom was at a loss. Any prior contact with Butch had always involved violence; now that she thought about it, she'd never actually _spoken_ to him, nor had she ever wanted to. Still, that shouldn't stop her now.

"Butch, whatever's been going on with my sister, I want it to stop." Her voice wavered a tiny bit, and when Brick threw her a look, she realised how useless this approach really was. Butch opened one eye, fixing it on her.

"What? She too scared to come find me herself? Has to send her big sister along for her? Please. Just stay out of it Red."She felt her face flush, and heard Brick make a small noise of irritation.

"Butch-"

"An' you can shut the hell up and all. What do you even care what I do? Not like you even have any time for me 'n' Boomer these days. Too busy hanging out with your stupid girlfriend over there." He pulled himself up to look at them, fixing a very feral looking smile on Blossom. She tried not to shudder.

"I'm just havin' a little fun with BC, that's all. She knows it. Hell, I think she's enjoyin' it as much as I am, even if she won't admit it." He broke into a laugh that was a shade too close to manic for Blossom's liking. "Say, she goin' to that little concert thing? Maybe I'll stop by." Blossom felt her hands curling into fists.

"You monster, you-"

"Blossom, stop. It's not worth it." Brick motioned for her to step back. "Listen, if I catch you anywhere near the concert on Tuesday, you are going to regret it. You understand me?"

"I'm hearing you bro, but I reckon you've gone soft. Still think you can take me in a fight? Wouldn't want your little girlfriend to get herself hurt, would you?"

"She can take care of herself, and I am more than capable of taking care of _you_." Butch got to his feet, all pretence of smiling dropped. His cigarette hit the floor and he stamped it out without looking at it, grinding it into the carpet. Without a word, Brick shifted Blossom behind him, putting himself squarely between her and his brother.

"She can take care of herself, huh?" Butch said, one of his hands twitching erratically, clenching and unclenching constantly. Brick said nothing, but his eyes narrowed. Blossom felt the static building up in her head, and coupled with the disjointed mess of Butch's thoughts, she started to feel dizzy.

"Brick, stop. Let's just go. I... It's not worth it, please." Brick glanced back over his shoulder at her, frowning at the waver in her voice. Then, he nodded and turned back to his brother briefly.

"I meant what I said. If you come anywhere near the concert, you _will_ regret it. You got me?" Butch licked his lips, the motion so quick it was barely perceptible.

"See you Tuesday."


	28. The 27th

_Gah, sorry this has taken so long guys. Truth be told, I went through a messy break-up this summer and as you can imagine, it's pretty tricky to write a good romantic build-up with that going on. Anyway, the good news is that I know what I want to do with the next chapter, so hopefully that won't take as long as this one did._

_And thanks for all the reviews. I love every single one of you; you guys are awesome._

**The 27****th**

"So, you're worried about tomorrow, huh?" Blossom blinked up at her sister.

"Worried? Oh, no, no, I'm not worried! I mean why would I be...?" She followed Buttercup's gaze down to the empty teacup in her hands. Except that it wasn't so much a teacup anymore as it was a handful of nicely painted shards of china.

"Oh."

Yes, okay, she was worried about tomorrow. For several reasons. The worst part was that she knew that her playing had improved greatly, and she had all of the pieces well prepared and rehearsed, so _that_ wasn't the issue. The real issue was that she was going to have to play them in front of _people_.

Some hero she was. She'd been defending this city from all sorts of hideous monsters and insane doomsday plots since she was in preschool and now she was irrationally breaking teacups due to _stage fright._

And that was without even getting started on this whole stupid bet thing with Brick, because _that_ wasn't helping either.

"I'm sure it'll be fine. You'll get up there and knock 'em all dead." Blossom's response came out as a vague mumble that may have almost been words. She was less than impressed with herself, and from the look of it, Buttercup shared the sentiment.

"I'm sorry Buttercup. This can't be helping you feel any better; me stressing out like this. How... how are you anyway?"

The slightly strained look that had been on Buttercup's face all morning intensified. When Blossom had returned home the night before, she'd told Buttercup what had happened with Butch. Of course, she'd initially been absolutely furious at Blossom's interference, but had eventually accepted that it had been Brick's idea. That said, she'd still spent the rest of the night locked in her room, leaving her sisters to worry and try to ignore the loud thumping noises.

From the look of the bags under her eyes, Buttercup hadn't slept much, if at all. She swept a hand through her hair agitatedly and took a gulp of coffee from her mug before saying anything.

"It's fine. I'll deal with it."

"Are you coming to the concert tomorrow night?" Buttercup looked away.

"I... no. I can't. If I go, he'll show up and ruin everything. You know he will."

"Buttercup-"

"I'm sorry Bloss, but I can't. It's better if I stay away from it; you know that." It was true, and Blossom couldn't really argue. At the same time, she felt vaguely hurt that Buttercup didn't want to go. She wondered if this was how Bubbles had felt when Blossom had been too busy making her precious plans instead of going out to the restaurant with them all that time ago.

xxx

"So where's Brick today? I thought he'd be helping you get some last minute practice in before tomorrow." Blossom shook her head as she took the bouquet of roses that Bubbles was holding out to her.

"I don't know. I haven't heard from him." Bubbles gestured over to where she wanted Blossom to put the flowers and then gave the stage a critical look.

"So why don't you just call him? You want to practice a little more, right? And you have his number." She plucked the roses from Blossom's hands before she could put them down and moved them a little more towards the right. "Perfect."

"You... really know what you're doing with this, don't you?" Bubbles giggled.

"I don't know; I guess I just watch a lot of interior design shows. So come on, are you calling him or not?"

"I guess I should..." For some reason, it seemed like a much bigger deal than it should be. She was just calling him so that she could practice some more, that was all. It wasn't like she was calling to arrange a-

No, _no_, that word was _not_ getting used in any context where Brick was involved.

Anyway.

Bubbles wandered off and continued shuffling flowers around, and Blossom pulled her phone out after another long moment. As she did, she noticed the message icon blinking on the screen. She must have forgotten to switch her phone's silent setting off after she finished practicing yesterday. Opening the message, she found it was from Brick:

'Can't practice today. Butch is missing. Don't worry, I'll fix it.'

_What?_

xxx

_Butch couldn't be missing. Not _now_. If Butch was missing now, it meant that he was planning something, and that meant that the concert was in trouble._

_And that meant _she_ was in trouble._

_He had felt his phone buzz in his pocket, but he didn't have time to check to see if it was her. The less she tried to get involved in this the safer it would be for her anyway. Despite the gravity of the situation, he allowed himself a smirk at the thought of what her reaction would be if he told her that._

"_Do we _have_ to go look for him?" Boomer whined, still flopped over the sofa. Brick made an irritated growling noise by way of response._

"_Come on man, I'm serious. Last time we went looking for him when he ran off like this he broke my nose. I can't risk my face like that again; what if it doesn't set straight this time?"_

"_We're going to go find him Boomer. Now get up before I break your damn nose myself."_

xxx

"Come on Buttercup, pick up, pick up..." But there was no response, the dialtone on her phone cutting out after a few more rings. Shoving it back in her pocket, she increased her speed. Bubbles was somewhere behind her, the pair of them streaking across the city towards home.

Naturally, they were just a little too late.

"Buttercup!" Their sister spared them a quick sideways glance before turning her full attention back to Butch. His grin widened at the sight of Blossom and Bubbles arriving.

"I get all three of you to play with? _Score_." Buttercup's eyes narrowed.

"You touch them, you die," she said flatly. Blossom moved to stand beside her, but Bubbles suddenly seized her arm, pulling her back.

"Wait," she whispered frantically. "She's doing something, look." Blossom turned back and took a closer look at her sister.

Buttercup's body was tensed, but it wasn't her usual fighting stance. Her face was furrowed with concentration, all her attention focused on Butch, a vein pulsing in her temple.

"What is she-?"

"Enough stalling BC; you gonna fight me or what?" Butch said, his tone mocking, but somehow... frustrated? Buttercup's mouth quirked upwards at one side, a quietly triumphant gesture.

"I don't know Butch, you sure you _feel_ like it?" Blossom's mouth dropped open.

"She's using her powers; she's controlling them. She's... she's controlling _him_."

"I wouldn't call it that," Buttercup said, suddenly clenching her jaw as Butch curled his hands into fists and tensed. Suddenly, he lunged and she had to dive sideways to avoid him, rolling herself upright. Blossom immediately moved to defend her, but she just held up a hand.

"No! I have to do this. I can stop him, I just need to-" He dived for her again, and this time she didn't move, instead ceasing her attempt to get back on her feet and dropping back down, gripping the front of his jacket as he reached her and flipping him over her. He landed awkwardly, and she immediately followed him, spinning herself round and jumping up to pin him down.

"Knew you couldn't resist a fight," he spat. She responded by slamming one arm down over his neck, using her other hand and one leg to keep his arms pinned down. The extra strain of holding him down showed on her face as she tried to regain her concentration.

"What are you doing?" He was struggling, but it seemed disjointed somehow, as though he didn't quite remember how his limbs worked.

"Would you just shut up already?" she snarled. "You can't have it both ways. You can't keep doing this."

Bubbles made a small noise and Blossom glanced back to find her trembling slightly, her eyes flickering green. Blossom had to admit that she didn't feel particularly steady either. Whatever Buttercup was doing to Butch, it was starting to affect them too. Tentatively, without any real idea of what she was looking for, Blossom reached out and tried to tap into Buttercup's thoughts. Finally, there was some sense of clarity, Buttercup's focus finally sharpening her thoughts into something Blossom could actually see.

_She was confused, hurt. Something he had said. That night in front of the house. It wasn't supposed to be like that. Why did he say that? That wasn't how it was supposed to be. They hated each other, they hurt each other. That was all it was. All it was._

_He wasn't supposed to _want _her._

"Oh my-" Blossom physically stumbled as the last thought hit her.

"What is it? What?" Bubbles' eyes were even wider than usual, her expression worried beyond belief.

"Stop... it." Butch's breathing was heavy, and he was clearly straining against Buttercup's mental hold on him as well as her physical one. She was in a similar state however, her jaw clenched so tightly that Blossom was sure she was going to grind her teeth right out of existence.

"You don't win this time,"she was growling. "You don't get what you want. You don't get your fight. You don't get to show up and ruin everything. I'm not doing this any more." He laughed, sputtering slightly because of the hold she had over his throat.

"Yeah right. Like you don't love it." Buttercup suddenly let go of his arms and neck, gripped his shoulders and slammed him down onto the road so hard that Blossom could feel tremors. Her face was millimetres from his, her eyes narrowed, her expression stony.

"I said, I'm _done_, Butch. I'm done with you playing games. I'm fucking sick of it!" Her voice rose in pitch at the last word, her eyes flashing green for a second, so bright that Blossom saw bright spots in her vision for several seconds afterwards. When she could finally see clearly again, Butch was unconscious, and so was Buttercup, who had now fallen to lie alongside him.

"Buttercup!" Bubbles rushed forward and towed her sister away from Butch, kneeling down beside her and trying to shake her awake. Blossom, on the other hand, stood there, stunned, unable to process everything that had just happened.

"What the hell?" She looked up dazedly to see Brick and Boomer landing nearby, Brick running over to her immediately.

"Bubbles called me," he said, by way of explanation. "What happened?"

"I... Buttercup, she... I think she fixed it." Brick looked at her, his expression no less confused. Blossom shook her head. "I don't think I can really explain. I don't really understand it myself."

By this point, Boomer had walked over to Butch and was nudging him with his foot.

"Bro? You awake?" There was no response. He nudged him again. "If you're dead, I'm taking your stuff." There was silence for another long moment, and then Butch raised one hand, middle finger extended. Boomer smirked, then called over: "He's fine!"

"Jesus, I really thought he'd got himself killed this time," Brick said under his breath. "Are _you_ alright?" Blossom nodded.

"He was already here when we arrived, and Buttercup didn't let us get involved." She managed a smile, which he returned, evidently relieved that neither his brother nor her had been hurt in any lasting way. The realisation that he was genuinely worried about her as well as Butch gave her a strange, and not altogether unpleasant, warm feeling that she told herself was probably not something she should be happy about.

"I'm okay, I'm okay. No, Bubbles, really, I'm _fine_." Blossom snapped round to where her sisters were sat. Buttercup was holding her head and trying to shoo Bubbles away from her with her other hand. Bubbles, for her part, was not to be deterred.

"You _fainted_ Buttercup. Come on, let me just-"

"_Stop it_." Blossom relaxed as she heard the two of them bickering as usual. Clearly Buttercup was no worse for wear, despite what had just happened.

"You should get Butch home," she told Brick. "And I should spend some time with my sister."

xxx

"Hey." Blossom looked up to find Buttercup standing in the doorway of her bedroom, her hair wet from her recent shower.

"How are you feeling?" Blossom asked, concerned. Buttercup had complained of feeling vaguely nauseous once Bubbles was out of earshot, but had dismissed it as nothing.

"Fine now. Like I said, I just overdid it a bit; nothing major. Mind if I sit in for a bit?" Blossom nodded, and her sister smiled her thanks, moving to the window seat and swinging her legs up beside her after sitting down.

"I was thinking," she said, pulling her knees up close to her chest. "I should go tomorrow."

"Buttercup, if you're not feeling up to it-"

"No. I should. You and Bubbles have been working really hard, and I've just been hiding in the living room. How pathetic is that?" She turned away and looked out of the window as she spoke.

"You had legitimate cause to be concerned. Butch is-"

"Dangerous. Sure. Never stopped me going out before though, did it?" She was silent for a moment. "Did you read me?" she asked eventually. Blossom swallowed, and considered lying, but her hesitation was all Buttercup needed.

"So you know what he said, huh?" She swept a hand through her wet hair, agitated. "Well, it doesn't matter now." She stretched her legs back out and finally turned her gaze back to her sister.

"I'm going tomorrow and that's final. Just... don't take any pictures of me in that damn dress, deal?"


	29. The 28th

_So, here it is, the final chapter. It's taken me a long time to get here. Not just this chapter either; this entire monster of a thing has taken up two and a half years of my life and you know what? I love it. I loved writing it, I love the characters and I love every single person who took the time to read it and review it. You all stuck with me through a lot of ups and downs and stupidly long hiatuses, and I'm sorry about that. Now, I just hope I've done the story justice with this ending. I hope you enjoy it._

**The 28th**

_Oh god. Ohgodohgodohgodohgod._

She could hear people talking from her position in the wings. It sounded like there was a _lot_ of people out there. _Ohgodohgodohgod..._

"Are you okay?" Bubbles was patting down the skirt of her dress and looked concerned, to the point that her eyes were wavering pink. Blossom attempted a reassuring smile, but she could tell that it was coming across more like she was sucking on a lemon.

"I'll be okay. It's just nerves; stage fright. I just have to... you know, get out there." Buttercup, standing a little distance away, snorted.

"Well, you might wanna loosen your grip, otherwise you'll be getting out there with a broken violin." Blossom was wound up to the point that she nearly let go of the instrument altogether when she realised just how tightly she was holding it. What was she _doing_? This was ridiculous. Bubbles could get up and perform complex cheer routines as easy as breathing, Buttercup went out and played sports as though her teams were extensions of herself. All Blossom had to do was stand on a stage and perform a few pieces of music she knew off by heart.

But then why was this so _difficult?_

"Where're the boys?" she heard Buttercup ask. Bubbles stood up from shaking out the bottom of Blossom's dress and gave her a critical look over before answering.

"Not sure actually. I haven't seen them since they came over to pick up their suits. Probably sitting out there somewhere." The idea of Brick sitting out in front of that stage waiting to see her play suddenly gave Blossom a jolt of what felt a lot like vertigo. What if she couldn't play like he taught her to? She'd never be able to look him in the eye again.

But wait. That would mean he'd _won_, wouldn't it? That would prove him right; that she wasn't as good a player as she thought she was. She felt her hands clench a little. She couldn't have _that_.

"Uh... you alright there, Bloss? That's kind of a slasher smile you have going on there."

"Hmm? Oh, I'm fine. How long until I'm on?"

"Five minutes. You ready?"

"More than."

xxx

_What was I thinking?_

The fact that everyone was now applauding her as she made her way out was not making her feel any better. As it was, she was having enough trouble keeping her balance in her shoes and trying to stop her hands from shaking.

_Just __**focus**__ Blossom._

She took her position, kept her eyes averted from the crowd while she raised her violin on to her shoulder. Finally, when she was ready, she raised her eyes and looked out.

The Professor, Bubbles and Buttercup were sat in the front row. Bubbles had a grin on her face so wide that it looked as though her face was about to split in two, while Buttercup had a quiet smile that really lit her eyes up. Her heart lurched as her eyes settled on the Professor. He just looked so _proud_ of her. She knew he was always proud of her, of all three of them, but right then, in that moment, he was proud of her for doing _this_, and that was what really mattered. She felt her throat tighten up a little bit and forced a small smile onto her face to try and hide it.

And then, as her eyes drifted over the crowd as she raised her bow, and just as it settled on the strings, she saw him. He was standing at the back of the hall, leaning on the wall next to the door and staring straight at her. The sight of him sent a jolt through her. It wasn't just his presence, or the fact that he was looking at her, but the _way_ he was looking at her. No one had ever looked at her the way he was now; as though she was the most captivating thing he'd ever seen. As though there was no one else in the room.

She felt her mouth curve into a smile, closed her eyes, and began to play.

xxx

"Oh Blossom, that was _incredible_!" Bubbles squealed, launching herself at her sister and practically swinging around her neck.

"That was a wonderful performance Blossom. You wouldn't believe how much money this has raised; we've had so many more donations since you finished up." Miss Bellum was beaming. Blossom, having become accustomed to her more usual strained expression had to admit that it was a nice change.

"I'm... I'm just happy you all enjoyed it," she stammered. The Professor laid a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Just to give you a head's up," muttered Buttercup, appearing suddenly at her ear. "But I think someone wants to talk to you." Blossom tensed involuntarily, knowing exactly who her sister was talking about. She turned, and saw him standing by the door, away from the main body of the crowd, as he had been in the hall earlier.

"I... I, umm, yes, excuse me."

She made her way over, trying to ignore the fact that she was suddenly acutely aware of just how hard her heart was hammering in her chest. As she approached, a lazy smile slid on to Brick's face, and made her swallow. Hard.

"Hey, nice work. You really got it tonight; I think that's the best I ever heard you play." She felt the blush spreading over her cheeks before she could even attempt to play it cool.

"I... Thank you. And I mean for everything, not just the compliment. Even if you did shanghai me into this, I couldn't have done it without you."

There was a brief pause, with neither of them knowing what more to say, before Brick cleared his throat awkwardly.

"So, it's the 28th already, huh?" Blossom almost winced. She knew what was coming.

"Brick-"

"Don't. Just... answer me. I know we've had a bit of a history. I know what I've done, but things have changed between us, haven't they?"

"Brick, it isn't that simple. I-"

"Blossom, please, I know you feel _something_. I really-"

"_Stop_!" She was panicking. She could feel herself panicking. All of this was too much to process, because she knew exactly what he was asking and it was just like that nightmare where she couldn't answer any questions in class.

She didn't know the answer.

_She didn't know the answer._

So she ran.

xxx

"What are you _doing_?" Blossom only just had time to turn around before Buttercup's fist connected with her jaw, spinning her sideways. She found herself pressed against the wall, and slumped back against it, her face throbbing painfully. Buttercup looked livid, her hair a mess from charging after her sister, her eyes glowing faintly.

"What the hell is wrong with you, huh? Why are you running away?" Blossom swallowed painfully, her throat constricting.

"Buttercup, I _can't_. I..." Her sister advanced on her, her eyes narrowed.

"Don't you _get_ it? He's not trying to screw you over Bloss. He doesn't know what he's doing and he doesn't know _why_ he's doing any of it, but he still _means_ it. And you _know_ that, I know you do."

"But he's still-"

"Shut up. Don't you dare. You say you can't be with him because he's dangerous? You think _you've_ got it bad?"

It was at that point that Blossom stopped and really _looked_ at her sister. Buttercup was obviously furious, there was no denying that, but _why_?

Because Blossom was throwing away something that Buttercup couldn't have.

Butch was beyond dangerous. Brick might be the greatest overall threat, but he was in control of himself; Butch wasn't. Even if he did want her, even if it was mutual, they'd tear each other apart. They couldn't be _together._ They weren't built that way, and Buttercup knew it.

"You're..."

"You don't need to say it. I know. And you know exactly how different it is for you. I can _feel_ it Blossom. Jesus, I think I can feel it more than you."

It was at that moment, staring at her sister with tears pricking the corner of her eyes, that Blossom finally did the one thing she _never_ did. She stopped thinking. She stopped thinking about all the things that were or could go wrong. She stopped thinking about the how and the why and the should.

"I... I need to find him."

xxx

It took her around an hour for her to find him. She had gone back to the hall, but he was long gone, and neither Bubbles nor Boomer could tell her where he'd gone.

"He looked pretty messed up," Boomer had told her unhelpfully. "He coulda gone anywhere."

But she'd finally tracked him down in the park, sitting on the edge of the fountain with an unlit cigarette between his lips.

"Save it," he said, sounding almost tired. "I know you're a good girl and all, but spare me an apology. Unless you _want_ to make me feel worse." She felt an unpleasant twist of guilt at his words. But that wasn't why she was here. She took a deep breath. She could do this. She had to do this.

"Brick... listen. I... need to tell you something. You were right. Things _have_ changed between us." His head snapped up at the words, his eyes suddenly boring into hers. She felt herself flush a little.

"You mean, you..." He was struggling with the words, but he dropped the cigarette and stood up. Suddenly, she felt very small next to him, and the reservations started to creep back in.

"I'm..." She felt like she was about to choke on the words. What was she trying to say? What did she _want_ to say? "I'm sorry, I..."

"Blossom, come on, please." She had never heard him sound so serious before. Mocking and teasing and angry, yes, but never serious. Never... _sincere_. Something in her chest felt like it was being torn in two. She didn't understand any of this. This was _Brick_. He was trouble, he was the worst choice, but he was funny and clever and he knew how to push all of her buttons and she had never met anyone else like him.

"I... I... I don't know. I didn't want any of this to happen. It _shouldn't_ have happened, Brick. I wish you'd never found me that night; that you'd never made that stupid, _stupid_ bet. But... what am I supposed to do?"

"I don't give a rat's ass about what you're _supposed_ to do, Blossom," he spat, his expression a mixture of desperation and... was that fear? No, not quite. Something else, something she couldn't quite define. "This isn't about some stupid bet anymore. I mean it. Just tell me what you _want_ to do. Tell me what _you_ want."

He was close. Too close. Mere inches away, so that all she'd have to do was lean forward through that tiny distance that separated them and...

"I... I don't... I _can't_. I should... I should..." She couldn't say it. She couldn't say it and she couldn't just walk away either. What had happened? Where was the girl who _knew_ what was right and could follow it through no matter what she had to sacrifice because it was the _right_ thing to do? Instead she was stranded there, staring at this boy who looked like he was just as unsure about everything as she was.

"I..." He kissed her then. Just reached out, grabbed her and dragged her forward to him before she could speak. And she let him, because they both knew what she'd wanted from the second she'd opened her mouth.

It wasn't long, and it wasn't anything like the first kisses her romance novels had lovingly described. It was short and it was forceful and when he drew back, he was looking at her as though she was some kind of wild animal that he was worried was going to attack him. And the old Blossom would have, she realised. The old Blossom who wouldn't allow herself to have feelings and who took every word out of Brick's mouth as a lie.

She still didn't know if she could trust him. But she could find out.

"Close your eyes," she said, mildly surprised at how calm her voice was. He blinked at her.

"Wha-"

"Just do it. Please."

He did. She took a deep breath, closed her own eyes, and opened her mind up to his.

There was no static. Everything was clear to her now. She sifted through his mind. Memories of the concert, of standing at the back of the hall and staring up at her. Of wanting so hard to talk to her afterwards but being scared of what she'd say. The crushing feeling of rejection when she ran away from him, and now...

She opened her eyes, checked her watch, then gripped his face in her hands and kissed him as hard as she was able. Because she knew. _She knew_.

He made a strangled noise of surprise somewhere in the back of his throat and then he was kissing her right back, because both of them wanted this just a much as the other.

"So does that mean I won?" he asked breathlessly. She smiled demurely.

"It is currently 12:08 am on the first of March. February is over. You lost."

He blinked at her, and then his expression took on a strange mixture of amusement and an odd kind of amazement.

"No," he said, leaning back in to kiss her again. "No, I really didn't."


End file.
